Daily Thoughts - 08/20/2016

Daily Thoughts: “Do and observe all things whatever they tell you, but do not follow their example.” (Today’s Gospel Matthew 23: 1-12) I have to admit every time I read this passage in Matthew’s Gospel I think of the bishops, cardinals and even popes. I think of them as saying one thing and doing another, of laying heavy burdens on others, of always needing places of honor, of always being shown respect but not respecting others. Yes, it is easy to point the finger at others.

However, if I truly stop and think about Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel the first person I must really consider first is yours truly, me. I too am part of the Church leadership. I am a priest, a preacher and a Passionist. Do my words and actions reflect Christ? Do I lay heavy burdens on people and then do nothing to help? Do I look for places of honor, special treatment just because of who I am? Do I expect people treat me different? Do I expect to be called “father,” “Rabbi,” or “Master?”

If I am honest at times the answer to some of these questions is, “yes” unfortunately! Yes, I get caught up in my humanness. I want to be special. I want the world to follow my words. I want people to point to me and say good things. I want to get the first place in line or be at the head table.

So Jesus’ words today are an opportunity for me to pause and reset my priorities. They are an opportunity for me adjust my life. They offer me a chance to plant my feet on the ground again and to value the things that are most important, the things that really matter. They are a reminder of who is most important in my life, God and others.

The Chicago Bears football great Gail Sayers entitled his autobiography, I Am Third, referring to the way he lived his life, Jesus first, others second and himself third. In Jesus’ words today I am reminded that I will never be perfect in this life and every once in a while, I do need a good kick in the behind so that I take note of why I am a Passionist, a priest and a preacher. Every once in a while, I have to remember God is first and I am third!

Have a great Saturday everyone.

Daily Prayer: O God, teach us to be generous to serve you as you deserve to be served, to give without counting the cost, to fight without fear of being wounded, to work without seeking rest and to spend ourselves without expecting any reward but the knowledge that we are doing your holy will. Amen (Adapted from a prayer by St. Ignatius of Loyola)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “Struggling and suffering are the essence of a life worth living. If you're not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you're not demanding more from yourself - expanding and learning as you go - you're choosing a numb existence. You're denying yourself an extraordinary trip.” (Dean Karnazes)

Daily Blessing: Saturday greetings and blessings to all! Our day here in Long Beach has started off sunny with the heaviness of humidity. I hope wherever you are your day is sunny but with less humidity!

I have a funeral this morning at 10:00 am and the 5:00 pm vigil mass this afternoon so it will be somewhat of a busy day. I guess you could say a typical day in the life of a parish priest.

My prayer of blessing for all of you today is that your weekend will be a restful and relaxing far from the busyness that life often heaps upon us. I pray you have had a good weekend whether you were working, vacationing or traveling. I also pray that your day will be blessed with people that will gift your life with laughter, smiles and fun. Don’t forget to give a little time to God this weekend. Remember one hour is not a lot of time and God will appreciate hearing from you!

Don’t forget to give God a little time this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 08/19/2016

Daily Thoughts: “Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.” (Thomas Merton)

Perhaps this is what Jesus is getting at as he answers the scholar of the law in today’s Gospel (Matt. 22: 34-40). Love sits at the heart of any relationship, of any friendship and the first mark of a good relationship, is benevolence. Actively, seeking and finding the good in another. In today’s Gospel Jesus reminds us that we are to love God and love others and love ourselves. In order to do this, we must find the good in the ones we love, God, others and self. As Merton says if we can do this the gift of love will be our reward!

Have a great Friday everyone.

Daily Prayer:  Loving God, teach us to love as you love. Help us to make our love unconditional, honest, and kind. Help us to ask nothing in return and to let our love encompass the whole of humankind.

Loving God, let us offer our love without speaking. Let it radiate as it shines forth from us. Let it be seen in our faces, in our eyes, and let it be simple, sincere, and shame free.

Loving God, show us how to forgive as you forgive and help us to not burden another with guilt. Help us to not play the role of the martyr but to be a rock on which trust may be built.

Loving God, let our love for you and others be greater by far than any love that is offered to us. Let our love be always led by the Spirit, inspired of you our God and as forgiving and free as Jesus’ love. Amen! (Adapted from a prayer by Virginia (Ginny) Ellis)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “A runner's creed: I will win; if I cannot win, I shall be second; if I cannot be second, I shall be third; if I cannot place at all, I shall still do my best.” (Ken Doherty)

Daily Blessing: Friday greetings and blessings to all. I hope your Friday is starting off well and that you are looking forward to a fun and relaxing weekend when your Friday work day comes to an end!

It is hard to tell right now what kind of day we are going to have here in Long Beach. Yesterday we had clouds most of the day and the humidity was certainly evident as we when through the day. It was a clear but humid evening so as we approach the morning my best guess is that we will have more of the same today, sun, clouds and unfortunately humidity. In any case I hope it is a beautiful day wherever you are today!

We find ourselves beginning the last day of a traditional work week but for some of you it is a Friday in the midst of your vacation or in the midst of a working weekend. So whatever this Friday means to you my prayer of blessing today for you is that God will bless us with his love today. May God bless us with a love that challenges us to love God, love others and love ourselves! May our Friday not be too busy and may we be blessed with a beautiful, restful, relaxing weekend! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 08/18/2016

Daily Thoughts: “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, man will have discovered fire.” (Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.)

I have always liked this quote from Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. and I think it ties into the thinking of Jesus in today’s Gospel (Matt. 22: 1-14).

The story in the Gospel today is about the coming of the Kingdom of God. It is about the end time. Who will accept God’s invitation? Who will be ready? Everyone is invited but do we accept the invitation? Are we ready to enter the banquet of eternal life?

The invited guests get caught up in the things of the world that they think are more important. One is not prepared, not ready. We to sometime get caught up in all the things the world defines as important and we lose sight of what God finds important. We think there is always tomorrow to get ready. If we think this way we will find ourselves just like the invited guests and the person not appropriately dressed, outside. However, if we can tap into God’s energy, if we can accept God’s invitation and be ready to enter the Kingdom we will not find ourselves outside in the end when it comes!

Have a great Thursday everyone!

Daily Prayer:  Grant, O God, that we may never fall away in success or in failure; that we may not be prideful in prosperity nor dejected in adversity. Let us rejoice only in what unites us and sorrow only in what separates us. May we strive to please no one or fear to displease anyone except you, our God. May we see always the things that are eternal and never those that are only temporal. May we shun any joy that is without you and never seek any that is beside you. Loving God, may we delight in any work we do for you and tire of any rest that is apart from you. Gracious God, let us direct our hearts towards you, and in our failings, let us always seek forgiveness with the firm purpose of being better people. Amen! (Adapted from a prayer by St. Thomas Aquinas)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places a shower will never reach.” (George Sheehan) We might say that prayer is the sweat of the spiritual life and it too cleanses from within and it touches places no rituals can reach. So if we pray while we run we can cleanses our total self!

Daily Blessing: Thursday blessings and greetings to all. I hope your day has started well? It is cloudy here in Long Beach this morning but I think we are to get some sun as the day progresses. Hopefully it will be a little less humid.

My prayer of blessing today is adapted from the Irish tradition - May God bless all of you today so the road rises up to meet you and makes your journeys swift and easy. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. And if the rain has to fall may it be soft upon the fields and upon you. And may you be truly blessed by God holding you in the palm of his hand throughout this day and always!

Have a great day everyone! May it truly be blessed with many wonderful experiences, may gifted and loving people and perhaps even a piece of chocolate or an ice cream treat! Oh go ahead it is still summer you can work on those extra pounds in the fall! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 08/17/2016

Daily Thoughts: We are confronted with that unsettling parable of Jesus’ again. Where is the justice? Where are the workers’ rights? How could the owner of the vineyard, how could Jesus be so uncaring? What does it all mean?

There are some of the typical questions and/or response I hear when this parable of the vineyard owner and the workers comes around (Matthew 20: 1-16). I always say to people this is not about worker rights, fair pay or justice. This parable is about compassion, mercy, generosity and love. This parable is about gratitude and letting God be God!

The line that always strikes me in this parable is, “Are you envious because I am generous?” I believe this is a struggle we all have with God. We are so programed to do the right thing and in doing so we receive what is do us, but that is not how God operates.

I often think about the Good Thief when this parable rolls around, it was just before his last breath that he connected with God. We talk about him stealing heaven. He is the very point of this Gospel today. The door to the Kingdom is always open, never closed and we are probably going to be surprised when we get there to see who is waiting to greet us, because God is a generous God, a merciful God, a loving God.

The human rules of this life don’t apply to God and many of us will be thankful that God doesn’t operate by human rules and concerns when we reach the door of the Kingdom because without God’s mercy, compassion and generosity we might find ourselves outside!

Be thankful not envious or judgmental today for our God is a generous God. Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Daily Prayer:

We live today…
 Christ with us,
 Christ before us,
 Christ behind us,
 Christ in us,
 Christ beneath us,
 Christ above us,
 Christ on our right,
 Christ on our left,
 Christ when we lie down,
 Christ when we sit down,
 Christ when we arise,
 Christ in the heart of every person who thinks of us,
 Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of us,
 Christ in every eye that sees us,
 Christ in every ear that hears us.

 We live today…

 Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
 Through belief in the Threeness,
 Through confession of the Oneness
 of the Creator of creation.

We live today…Thankful for a generous and loving God! Amen.

A Runner’s Thoughts: “The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy… It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed.” (Jacqueline Gareau) So too in the spiritual life…the soul and spirit must be strong. It is the will, the desire to be faith filled

Daily Blessing: Wednesday blessings and greetings to everyone! It looks to be another sunny and humid day here in Long Beach. But there is a rather strong ocean breeze this morning but you can feel the humidity in the air. We had a number of storms throughout the night but I think we have to wait another day or two before the humidity breaks. I hope your day has started off well and will only get better as the day goes on.

In about 45 minutes or so I will head over to the church for 8 am mass and along with the people who join me today I will bring your needs, intentions and petitions with me to this morning’s celebration. May the generosity of God, who gave us his only Son, grace all of us in our journey through this day. I will also be remembering my brother-in-law’s Aunt Carol this morning at mass. She died yesterday and I will honor her memory this morning. May she now rest in the loving hands of God!

In the spirit of the Gospel today my prayer of blessing this morning is that God will bless your day with the grace of gratitude for the generosity of God. May you be blessed throughout this day and always with the compassion, mercy, love and generousness of God in the places you go, in the people you meet, in the things you do and in the gift of who you are in this world today! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 08/16/2016

Daily Thoughts: In today’s Gospel the disciples listen to Jesus and then wonder, “Who can be saved?” Jesus says, “For [humankind] this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Peter still worried about himself and asks, “If I follow you, what's in it for me?” Perhaps, the answer is not what’s in it for me but what can I do to help to make things possible? I/we can have a sense of gratitude for all God has graced us with. I/we can let go of our own need to control and live with gratitude and gratefulness toward God because it just might make all the difference.

Thomas Merton says it better than me… “To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.”

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Daily Prayer:

Loving God, we come before you in grateful prayer today. We are grateful for this moment of life. We are grateful for each breath we take. We are grateful for our life. And so we thank you for our challenges for they help us to grow. We thank you for our many gifts for they help us to smile. We thank you for our many circles of support for they hold our hand. We thank you for our body for it is our vehicle of living. We thank you for our heart for it reminds us to love. We thank you for our mind for its abundance. We thank you for our friendship with you for it inspires us. Loving God, we thank you and we are grateful for life and the opportunity to live it with you! Amen.

A Runner’s Thoughts: “There is something magical about running; after a certain distance, it transcends the body. Then a bit further, it transcends the mind. A bit further yet, and what you have before you, laid bare, is the soul.” (Kristin Armstrong) And when you get to the soul you will find God!

Daily Blessing: Tuesday greeting and blessing to all. I hope your day has started off well. It is going to be another hot and humid day here in Long Beach. Yes, even by the ocean it is rather uncomfortable these days. These are truly the dog days of August though I am not really sure what that means. May it be a bit cooler wherever you are.

My prayer of blessing for us today is a simple litany asking God to help us along the way – Loving God, we pray for your blessing today in the midst of our busy life. If we find ourselves struggling with the heat of summer reminds us of the cold days of winter. If we are under the weather touch us with your healing presence. If we are busy guide us to a moment of peace. If we are frustrated grace us with an acknowledgement of the gift that you are. If we find ourselves angry today help us to let it go. If we find ourselves alone embrace us so that we know that are not. O God, bless us with what we need to live our life this day!

May we live with a sense of gratitude today so that we will be blessed with good day and graced with God’s love in all our endeavors.  Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 08/15/2016

Daily Thoughts: Two years ago at this time I had just returned from a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Recently I have thought a lot about that journey and how it changed my relationship with Mary. She was very present during my travels two years ago especially during my time in Lourdes. While some might wonder why we pray through Mary to Jesus or the Father, or the Holy Spirit, it became very evident to me while in Lourdes that Mary has played and continues to play a very important role in my relationship with God and in all our relationships with God. The richness of her life, her presence and her place in the Body of Christ, in the Church and in the living of everyday life is very important. She is a touch stone to the presence of God in our life. I am glad to celebrate the gift of her love to us today on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.

As we celebrate today I turn to some words by Benedict our Pope Emeritus in offering you some faith food for the journey of life today…

“Mary is a woman who loves. How could it be otherwise? As a believer who in faith thinks with God's thoughts and wills with God's will, she cannot fail to be a woman who loves. We sense this in her quiet gestures, as recounted by the infancy narratives in the Gospel. We see it in the delicacy with which she recognizes the need of the spouses at Cana and makes it known to Jesus. We see it in the humility with which she recedes into the background during Jesus' public life, knowing that the Son must establish a new family and that the Mother's hour will come only with the Cross, which will be Jesus' true hour (cf. John 2:4; 13:1). When the disciples flee, Mary will remain beneath the Cross (cf. John 19:25-27); later, at the hour of Pentecost, it will be they who gather around her as they wait for the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).”  (Pope Benedict XVI)

Happy Feast of the Assumption of Mary everyone and may the spirit of Mary enliven your journey of faith!

Daily Prayer:

Friends as we pause for prayer today let us turn to Mary and ask for the gift of her spirit to guide our journey through life…

Dearest Mary who carried Christ in her womb and accompanied the first steps of the Church, may you help us to place Christ and his community called church always at the center of our life and our ministry.  O Mary, who was the first and the most perfect disciple of your Son, may your spirit help us to let ourselves be loved by Christ and to follow and serve Him in every situation. Loving Mary who responded to the announcement of the Angel with the most profound humility, may your spirit help us to recognize our own inadequateness within the treasure that has been entrusted to us and to always live humbly in the presence of God. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: Remember – “Last is just the slowest winner.” (C. Hunter Boyd) “Runners just do it – they run for the finish line even if someone else has reached it first.” (Anonymous) “The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy… It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed.” (Jacqueline Gareau) And so too in the spiritual life…

Daily Blessing: Monday greetings and blessings to all! I find myself this morning getting ready to head to in Long Beach, New York where I will be for the next two weeks. I am helping out at St. Ignatius Martyr Parish. I have the 7:30 pm mass this evening. For the next two weeks I get to wake up each day to the sound of the ocean. However, at least for the first few days it is going to be hot and humid and I hoping that sometime this week things will change a little! I hope the weather is I little nicer wherever you are that you will get the chance to go out and take a little walk and smell the flowers.

I know that my life has been touched by Mary’s presence often. So in the spirit of the Feast of the Assumption I pray that God will bless you with the humble and loving spirit of Mary’s presence in your life today. That you will be touched by the compassion, nurturing, loving and joyful spirit of Mary as you journey through this day and always. May Mary the Mother of Jesus, always bring your struggles, your needs to her loving Son turning the ordinary water of life into the extraordinary wine of God’s love!

My prayer for all of you today is that you too will find the gift of peace and joy through the intercession of Mary as you journey through life today and always. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul