Daily Thoughts - 04/30/2016

Daily Thoughts: In some ways the image created by John in his Gospel today can be a bit confusing. In today’s Gospel Jesus talks about “the world.” He says. “If the world hates you, realize that it hates me first.” We might be led to believe by this statement that “the world” is bad, that there is nothing good about “the world.”

If we look at Jesus’ statements about “the world” in this section of John’s Gospel in this way then how do we reconcile this image of “the world” with Genesis 1:31, which tells us that God created our world good or John 3:16, which tells us that God so loved the world.

“The world” that Jesus speaks about in the Gospel today are those people who have rejected Jesus. In Jesus’ time and in our time there is good and bad in “the world,” there is life and death, there is good and evil. There are some in “the world” who will and do hate us. Rejection of Jesus and his message is alive and well today. There are people who reject the Gospel, who reject Jesus, who reject faith.  They are “the world” that Jesus warned us about.

Just because it has been over 2,000 years since Jesus it does not mean that rejection and hate have gone away. It does not mean that we are immune from the hate and persecution that Jesus encountered. We might not have to carry a wooden cross through city streets and die on it, but we will be hated and persecuted because we believe.

The question might be how do we deal with this? I think Pope Francis has given us a clue, he says that our “weapons” of self-defense are the Gospel, humility and meekness. In other words we are not to be like those in “the world” who hate, persecute, those who sling mud, criticize and judge. We are to be people of the Gospel, people of compassion, forgiveness and love. We are to be Gospel people in humility and meekness.

You might say these “weapons” go against every human instinct. When challenged, when persecuted our instinct is to strike back but that is not Jesus’ way and as people of faith it is not our way.  If we truly know Jesus, if we truly believe then hate and persecution does not matter what does is bringing life to the presence of God through forgiveness, compassion and love!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God make us instruments of your love, compassion and forgiveness. When we are hated, help us not to lash out with hate. When we are persecuted by word or action, help us not to sling mud back. When we are not respected or made fun of, help us not to be disrespectful and arrogant. When the way people talk about us or report about us does not seem fair, help us to be your faithful, humble and meek servants who bring your presence to the world. For if we are compassionate and loving people we will keep alive your Good News and help all to know just how much you love the world. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: Remember running can be humbling and elevating at the same time. When we run and see the beauty of creation we realize how insignificant and tiny we really are when it comes to all of creation, yet God did create each of us as “very good.” Each of us carries the image and likeness of God within us. So as we run let us run with God helping to create a better world and a better person!

Daily Blessing: Saturday greetings and blessings to all! I hope your weekend has started off well. It looks to be a sunny morning here in Manitowoc but they say rain will move in this afternoon which means I will probably have a rainy drive later today.

This is the last morning of retreat. I will celebrate the closing mass at 10 am and hopefully be on the road around 11:30 am for my journey east to Greensburg, PA. It has been a good week here at Holy Family Convent and I have truly enjoyed the sisters in the St. Rita’s community. Please continue to keep them in your prayers and today if you could say an extra prayer for the traveler it would be appreciated!

Have a great Saturday everyone. Blessings upon this first day of your weekend, may you find some rest and relaxation and may you be gifted with many smiles, friendly people and the loving presence of God throughout your day. May this Saturday be rich in all that makes a day life giving and life sustaining for you. Peace in Christ’s Passion and Joy in the Risen Christ…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 04/29/2016

Daily Thoughts: As I was reflecting on today’s Gospel early this morning these two thoughts came to mind.

The first was a quote that I have always liked from Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ. – “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, [humankind] will have discovered fire.”

And the second is a prayer written by St. Ignatius of Loyola, SJ. – “Take Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me. To you, O Lord, I return it. All is yours, dispose of it wholly according to your will. Give me only your love and your grace, for this is enough for me.”

In the Gospel Jesus tells us to love one another and in doing so he uses the example of his own love for us. He tells us that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends and we are his friends. Yes, Jesus is talking to his disciples some 2,000 plus years ago but if we believe the scriptures are alive then Jesus is also talking to us.

As we are told in John’s Gospel – God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son and all we have to do is believe. Well Jesus with his words today puts an exclamation point on God’s love for us. Our job, our task, our command is simply to follow the example of Christ and to discover fire, to discover the energies of love in each other!

Love is only realized, only understood in terms of action. Jesus so loved us that he gave his life for us. How we love determines the power and presence of God in our life. If we love God then we are called to live that love, we are called share it with one another.

Jesus reminds us today to discover the fire of love in our lives and in the world and to turn over everything to God because God’s love for us is always enough. 

Have a great Friday everyone!

Daily Prayer:

Most high and glorious God,
Enlighten the darkness of our hearts,
Give us correct faith, certain hope and perfect charity.
Give us insight and wisdom
So we may always discern your holy and true command.
(Adapted from the Prayer Before the Crucifix, by St. Francis of Assisi)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “Winning has nothing to do with racing. Most days don’t have races anyway. Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism, and never, ever, ever giving up.” (Amby Burfoot)

Daily Blessing: Friday greetings and blessings to everyone! Yes, we have made it through another week and we can take a deep breath and say, “Thank God it is Friday!” I hope you have had a good week and that your weekend will be a reward for all your hard work this week. If not, if this week has not gone so good or the weekend means no rest and more work just hang in there, better days are ahead!

As for me, we are in the home stretch of retreat here at Holy Family Convent in Manitowoc, WI. The retreat has gone very well at least from my perspective. We have one more full day and then we will end tomorrow morning with mass. I had another spirit filled day yesterday visiting the sisters, offering the Sacrament of Reconciliation and sharing a few thoughts. Today some more visit and I will offer the Sacrament of the Sick during the afternoon conference. Please continue to pray for the sisters on retreat and if you can add an extra prayer for their preacher it will be greatly appreciated!

It continues on the cold side here in Manitowoc but they say we will move away from the cloudiness today and get a little sunshine. It will be a welcome change and perhaps it will make things at least feel a little warmer!

I pray your day has started off well and that you are enjoy a little more color, sun and warmth than I am. My prayer of blessing today is that you will encounter God’s grace and blessing wherever you are and in whatever you are doing. May you be blessed with the thought and reality that rest and relaxation is the order of your weekend and that you will get through today with a sense of accomplishment that your week has been a good one. May it be graced with the presence of good people today and may God gift you always with his joy and love! Peace in the Christ’s Passion and Joy in the Risen Lord…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 04/28/2016

Daily Thoughts: “So that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete,” the closing words of the Gospel today. Have you ever noticed that Jesus always seems to be thinking about others? He always seems to want the best for the people around him. All he asks is that we believe in the value of love; the love of God for us, the love of Jesus for us and our ability to love others in the same way.

The communities of faith that we hear about in the Acts of the Apostles are challenged over and over by Jesus’ commandment to love. They value God’s love, they value Jesus’ love thus how they live, grow and change as a community of faith demands that they extend this love to others. The laws, the rules, the regulations change because the community tries to be inclusive and loving. The community tries to look beyond its small world to a larger world. It is not easy. It takes openness, dialog, discussion and sometimes change.

I read an article a couple of years ago in which a member of our Church leadership used an example from his childhood about having to wash his dirty hands before eating. It was a rule in his family and even if there were guests they had to wash their dirty hands before eating. A simple story and one that many of us can relate to I certainly can as hand washing before meals was a rule in my house too.

However, to use the washing of dirty hands to address the complex struggles inclusion in the church today seems a bit simplistic and invalid. Imaging people dealing with weighty issues like sexuality, sexual orientation, birth control, marriage, divorce, just to name a few, as people with dirty hands seems a bit simplistic. Equating the washing of dirty hands with some profound struggles in life seems disrespectful to people created in the image and likeness of God.

Yes, we have many challenges to the community of faith today. Yes, there are no easy answers which makes the job of leadership and faith difficult but to say all people have to do is wash their hands make no sense to me!

God’s love, Jesus’ love is a gift and yes there is a condition, the condition is our love for God, for others and for ourselves. This condition is not easy within our human nature and it is certainly not as simple as washing our hands. The early church knew this and I think so do we!

Have a great Thursday everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God of Great Love, open our hearts to the gift of your love this day and always. Help us to see your image and likeness in ourselves and in everyone we meet. Grace us with the wisdom to learn, to listen, to discuss, to discern and to grow. Enable us to move beyond what stifles growth so that your joy will always be within us and that our joy will always be complete through the hope of a world made new. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” (Robert Frost)

Daily Blessing: Thursday greetings and blessings to all! I hope this finds you well and having a good day. The weather here in Manitowoc was cloudy and cold yesterday. The wind was out of the northeast and it made my run yesterday afternoon not so pleasant. I don’t think we are to see the sun again until Friday.

We had another good day of retreat yesterday. It has been nice visiting with the sisters on each of the floors in the morning and afternoon. Please continue to keep the sisters on retreat in your prayers and if you can afford an extra prayer for the preacher it would be greatly appreciated.

I ran across a little saying some time ago, “Prayer may not change things for you, but it for sure changes you for things.” So I will say a little prayer for all of you today! May God bless your day with warmth, sun, good people, smiling face, kind words, safe travels, easy decisions, productive meetings and much love. May God enliven your day with his loving presence, grace and joy. Peace in Christ’s Passion and Joy in the Risen Lord…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 04/27/2016

Daily Thoughts: There are two things that strike me in today’s readings. First in the Acts of the Apostles we encounter a moment of struggle within the early Church. Some want to keep things as they are. They don’t want to break with tradition, while others see no need for past tradition. The struggle focuses on past Jewish traditions and the emerging new Church into which gentles are entering. Paul and Barnabas decide to go to Jerusalem and talk about the problem. What a novel idea, sitting down and talking about issues, problems, struggles and differing views of Church. Perhaps Pope Francis has taken a page from the Acts of the Apostles over the last three years!

My second thought comes from the Gospel. Not too long ago Jesus offered us the image of the Good Shepherd – God as the shepherd always watching out for us, always taking care of us, always walking with us. It is a comforting image of God’s presence in our life. Today the image is of God as the life giving vine extending out into the world through us the branches. God becomes the vine running through our life offering us grace by which we grow into the person we have been created be so that we can produce the fruit of God’s presence and love in the world.

As a branch of God’s presence and love in the world we don’t have to know everything. We are a branch running from the Vine. It is the Vine that offers us everything that we need as long as we stay attached. We cannot do it on our own we must depend on the Vine – God’s presence, grace, love, mercy, forgiveness and joy to produce good fruit.

Jesus through the image of the vine and the branches reminds us today that the more we are connected to God, the more we lean on God, and the more we learn from God and experience God’s presence in the world around us, the better we will be at living life – the more fruit we will produce!

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Daily Prayer:  Loving Jesus, you have no body now on earth but mine, no hands but mind and no feet but mine. Mine are the eyes through which you look out with compassion on the world. Mine are the feet with which you go about doing good. Mine are the hands with which you bless people now. Jesus you have no body now on earth but mine so through me bless the world today. Amen! (Adapted from a prayer by St. Teresa of Avila)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “There is a lesson to be learned from running in various emotional states, just as there are lessons to learn from running in a wide range of environmental settings. Don’t shy away from running in an unaccustomed state of mind or an unusual situation. Opportunity for enlightenment often waits in the unfamiliar.” (Roger Joslin) And another thought, “Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running.” (Julie Isphording)

Daily Blessing: Wednesday greetings and blessings to all. I hope your day has started off well. We had a good second day of retreat yesterday here at Holy Family Convent in Manitowoc, WI. The weather is still on the chilly side but today we are to see the sun and perhaps that will warm us up a bit. I would ask you to please continue to pray for the sisters on retreat and it you get a chance to say an extra prayer for the preacher it would be greatly appreciated.

My prayer for all of you today is that you will be have a great day, one filled with many blessings. May God bless your work, your travel, your encounters with others, may God’s blessings be upon those whom you love and upon you! May God bless you so that you can get over any “hump” today in peace and joy! Peace in Christ’s Passion and Hope in the Risen Lord…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 04/26/2016

Daily Thoughts: Peace is one of the most elusive gifts whether we are searching for it personally or as a family or a culture and society. There are so many things that can get in the way of peace in life. It can be the minor irritations of life like traffic, construction, a person on a cell phone sitting next to us or spring allergies. It can also be the major realities of life, civil war, civil unrest, injustice, warring nations, terrorism and natural disasters. There are many things that can get in the way of a peaceful moment and a peaceful life.

Jesus in the Gospel today offers us peace. Yet he reminds us that the peace he offers is not of this world. In fact, the peace that Jesus offers cannot be found in this world. His peace lies beyond this life and flows from his relationship with the Father, the Creator of peace.

Jesus reminds us that we need not be troubled or afraid that even though we cannot encounter his peace in this world, he will not forget us. In other words, in order to encounter the peace that Jesus offers we need to somehow let go and let God!

Peace is what we all want in our personal lives and in our world. We encounter it every once in a while for a moment however it doesn’t last. Something always comes along to disturb the peace. Thus we need to be people of faith; we need to be people of hope.

In the midst of all life’s struggles the early Church continued to move forward. They did not get down they did not give up. It was through God’s grace that the Good News was preached. It was because the early Church had faith and hope in God. Their hearts were not afraid or trouble they were on the journey towards the peace that Jesus offers. Let us be people of faith and hope today. May we not be troubled or afraid because we are willing to let go and let God!

Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone.

Daily Prayer: Lord, make us instruments of your peace, where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen. (Adapted from the Prayer known as the Prayer of St. Francis)

A Runner’s Thoughts: As you run today remember with each plant of your foot you feel firmness under you. Feel that firmness as the presence of God.  Trust in that firmness. Know that God is running with you!

Daily Blessing: Tuesday greetings and blessings to everyone! I hope your day has started off well and if not know that I am praying that it gets better! It remains on the cool side here in Manitowoc with rain off and on. They are saying that the rain will end this morning but we will remain on the cool side.

Our first day of retreat went well yesterday. I visited the first floor which is full nursing care and the third floor which is the dementia floor yesterday and gave a talk to the whole St. Rita’s Community in the afternoon. The sisters seem to be in retreat mode and I am looking forward to another full day of visits. Please keep the sisters on retreat in your prayers and if you can add a prayer for the preacher it would be greatly appreciated.

My prayer this morning is that your day will be blessed with the presence of God. May your travels, your encounters, your work, your interactions with others be touched with the grace of God and may your living of life today bring you a little closer to the peace Jesus has left for us. Peace in Christ’s Passion and Joy in the Risen Lord…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 04/25/2016

Daily Thoughts: We celebrate the feast day of St. Mark, the evangelist, writer of the earliest and shortest Gospel. We meet Mark also known as John Mark, in the Acts of the Apostles and in the First Letter of Peter which is the first reading for today’s mass. Mark was a companion of St. Paul for a time and Peter refers to him as his son, most probably meaning his spiritual son.

Mark took the account of Jesus’ Passion and Death and formed his Gospel around this main event in the life of the faith community. Mark gives us nothing of Jesus’ birth or early life. He gives us the years of Jesus’ ministry and public life. As stated the center of Mark’s Gospel account is Jesus Passion and Death.

The tradition of Mark’s Gospel has helped to spread the Good News. His Gospel has helped to sustain our faith throughout the centuries. It has helped the Church keep alive the story, the life, the ministry, the love of Jesus for the world. As we celebrate Mark today let us be reminded of the Good News. Let us take a moment out of our day to read a few word, a story, a passage from his Gospel. Let us remember the story of Jesus and let us proclaim that story in the way we live our life!

Have a great Monday everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God, let us draw upon the inspiration of St. Mark today, who proclaimed the Good News through his preaching and writing. May we be people of faith who remind the world of the Good News today by our own words and actions. May we keep Jesus’ story alive through the living of our own lives. Give us the strength to proclaim your mercy, your love, your hope and your presence to the world we encounter today. Help us to find your presence, your image and likeness within ourselves.  Help us to be your grace to a struggling world today and always. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: Remember as you run today that the difference between the possible and the impossible is our determination, is our faith and our friendship with God, because with God all things are possible.

Daily Blessings: Monday greetings and blessings to all! I hope your day has started off well, with a little sunshine and warmer temperatures! If not, I pray the morning setbacks are only temporary and things will be humming along by the afternoon.

We begin our retreat here at Holy Family Convent this morning. I will be celebrating the retreat with the St. Rita’s Community about 70 sisters who range from independent living to full nursing care. There is also a floor dedicated to dementia. My retreat will consist of morning prayer, mass, a talk in the afternoon and personal visits to each floor throughout the day. It is a different kind of retreat from what I usually give but it should be an interesting week. Please keep the sisters in your prayers and if you could add a short prayer for the preacher and visitor it would be greatly appreciated!

My prayer of blessing for all of you today is that you may have a great Monday filled with many blessings and graced with many moments that put a smile on your face. May you have the energy and enthusiasm to embrace whatever this day will be and bring you way. May you find throughout this day throughout the richness of God’s love and mercy in everyone you meet, in everything you do and in everyplace you go. Please know that you are in my prayers today as I celebrate this first day of retreat with the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity today! Peace in Christ’s Passion and Hope in the Risen Lord…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 04/24/2016

Daily Thoughts: On Holy Thursday during the Eucharist of the Lord’s Supper we heard the verses of John’s Gospel that lead into to those we hear today. Jesus has washed the feet of his followers and we learn that Judas has dirtied his hands by betrayal. Jesus is back at the table and Jesus begins the Good-News, Bad-News of his last hours with his friends. The bad news is that he is going to be with them for only a little while longer. The good news is that he will be revealed in all his glory, upon the Cross. Jesus over the next four chapters of John’s Gospel will make sure that his message is clear enough for his friends to understand.

What Jesus make most clear and which he will repeat in chapter fifteen, is that he wishes them to love one another and by this love stay together as well as increase in fruitfulness. It is by this love for one another that they will be recognized and draw others to friendship with God.

Jesus commands a “new” kind of love which is meant to bring back light, reverence, respect for what is restoring what God did with the first command at creation. The disciples are commanded to love each other into life as Jesus has done with them. Jesus has given them as much as they can handle. Now he is urging them to love outside the circle, beyond the eleven. They are to encourage others to reverence themselves as gifts prepared to be given in gratitude to others.

In our world not all of us enter the process of bringing new sacred life into this circle of love. Yet, we are all commanded to co-create, and co-recover the lives within our life’s circle. When understood, this “new commandment” urges us beyond the emotional experience of love. We are missioned to continue God’s love. We might say that through us God continues to say, “Let there be light” because of us. “Let there be love” because of how we live. Imagine all that! That is mighty “new commandment” and a commandment which surpasses all others.

Yet if we look around our world, we have the opposite power as well.  There is our ability to also not love, to de-create. It is the “old commandment” which Satan gave to Adam and Eve. However, Jesus is inviting his disciples and us to accept our being loved by God and having accepted that, we are challenged to gracefully be instruments of attracting others into the circle of life. If we love others, we want them to be, not more than they can be, but more of the God-loved persons that they are. The more we love others, the more they have the chance to love themselves, the more the circle of life, the community of life, called Church, will be able to grow larger, deeper. The more we come to know our true selves, the more we will want to share with others the love of God.

Jesus handed his life over to us before he handed his life over to the Cross. We are now commanded to be the instruments - sacraments - making his creative love a real presence in the world.

Have a great Sunday everyone and don’t forget to give God a little time today!

Daily Prayer: Help me, O God, to be a good and true friend, to be loyal and never to ley my friends down: never to talk about them behind their backs in a way that I would not do to their faces; never to betray a confidence or talk about things I should be silent about; always to be ready to share everything I have; to be as true to my friends as I would wish them to be to me. This I ask for the sake of him who is the greatest and truest of all friends, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. (A prayer by William Barclay)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “A runner must run with dreams in his [or her] heart, not money in his [or her] pocket.” (Emil Zatopek) So to in the spiritual life…

Daily Blessing: Sunday afternoon greetings and blessings to all. I have arrived in Manitowoc, WI after my long Saturday and early Sunday journey. It was an uneventful and relatively easy drive. Not much traffic and no significant delays due to construction. My Sunday started about 5:30 am, I hope yours did not start as early and is proving to be a pleasant day. The weather here in Manitowoc is cloudy and cool but as the sister at the front desk told me, “Wait ten minutes it will change!”

I will spend the rest of my day getting ready to begin a retreat with the sisters here at Holy Family tomorrow morning. May you spend the rest of your day doing what you might need to do as you get ready for a new work week. Please keep the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity in your prayers this week, especially those on retreat and if you could mention their preacher in your prayers it would be greatly appreciated.

May God bless you with an enjoyable Sunday afternoon and evening especially if you are among family and/or friends. Through God’s love may the rest of your day offer you some rest and relaxation so that you might be ready to live a new week by sharing God’s love!

I will leave you this afternoon with this thought from Thomas Merton, “Love is the guarantee that the life of the Spirit is growing in us. Love is the sign of the Holy Spirit at work in the Church and in the world.” So may God bless you with much love today and may you love much today. Peace in Christ’s Passion and Joy in the Risen Lord…Fr. Paul