Daily Thoughts - 10/06/2015

Daily Thoughts: Here we are once again beating up poor Martha. Is that really what today Gospel is about? (Luke 10: 38-42) Is Martha really doing the wrong thing? I think not!

I have often felt that Martha has gotten a bad rap because of the way we have looked at this Gospel over the centuries. We seem to think that a person who is hardworking, hospitable and concerned about her guest is somehow less faithful, less holy than a person of formal prayer and that is just not true.

Martha is a good and faithful person, her mistake in the Gospel today is that she focuses on someone else; she is concerned about someone else is doing rather than focusing on what she is doing. If Martha had just done her work with joy, enthusiasm and unselfishness this story in Luke’s Gospel would have never taken place.

Let us for a moment reverse the roles. Suppose Mary had come to Jesus to complain about Martha. “You know Jesus she is always working, always running around being hospitable. She should stop when you come into the house and sit and listen to you!” What would Jesus have said? My guess is that he says, “Mary, Mary, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Martha has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

You see each woman in the story chooses her journey. Choose what she does best and that becomes her better part. Martha is a worker, she does it well. Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, she listens and she does it well. There will always be tension between action and contemplation, between ministry and prayer, between work and quiet time. But the challenge is to pick what is best for us at that moment. What is our better part at each moment or stage of our life? What will help us to recognize God?

Martha and Mary remind us that there are many gifts and that each gift is important. We just need to recognize what is important for us and not be worried about what is important for others!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God, Creator of the universe, Helper of those who turn to you, renew for us the wonders of your mercy and love; send forth your Spirit to work in the inner most depths of our hearts, that enemies may begin to dialogue, that adversaries may shake hands, and that peoples may encounter one another in harmony. May all commit themselves to – the sincere search for true peace which will extinguish all arguments, for love which overcomes hate, for pardon which disarms revenge. Amen. (Adapted from a prayer by St. John Paul II)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “Not only in running but in much of life is a sense of balance and proportion necessary.” (Clarence DeMar)

Daily Blessing: Tuesday greetings and blessings to everyone! It looks to be a beautiful sunny fall day here in Pelham. Yes there is a chill in the air but one that creates a positive energy. Yet I know there are some struggling areas of our country especially North and South Carolina. Let us keep the people of those states in our prayers today as they try to put their lives back together again after all the flooding.

I continue to keep the Synod on the Family taking place in Rome these days in my prayers hoping that those involved will follow Pope Francis’ advice and become a bridge rather than a road block.

May God bless you and be with you today. May God show you what is good, life giving and loving and may God’s grace help you to act justly and to love tenderly and to walk humbly with God. Amen! Have a great Tuesday everyone. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 10/05/2015

Daily Thoughts: “Run away from God,” that is Jonah’s response to what God asks of him and I have to say that there have been many times in my own life when I would have liked to have done the same thing. Sometimes what God seems to be asking of us just doesn’t feel right. Sometimes what God asks of us seems beyond our ability. Sometimes what God asks of us isn’t fun. Sometimes what God asks of us puts us at odds with the world around us. So why not run?

Well as we find out in the story of Jonah today (Jonah 1:1-2; 2, 11) you can run but you can’t hide from God! Somehow, someway God is going to find you and put you right back in the middle of things or God will find someone else to do the job. The priest and the Levite ran away but God persisted and the Samaritan did not (Luke 10: 25-37).  You can hear the voice of Pope Francis in the Gospel today. He echoes Jesus’ voice on who is our neighbor. Our neighbors are the people in most need and our challenge is to always show mercy.

When faced with this challenge we can always run, we can always try to hide, we can always make excuses. But God is always going to find us, perhaps not in this life but when it most counts the life to come and if we haven’t responded, if we haven’t been merciful we will find ourselves in a terrible and unending storm!

There have been many moments in my life when I felt like running away from God and it was the simple prayer, the Our Father that held me in place. The Our Father is often the formal prayer that I pray when running because of its simplicity and power.

Today we are challenged to be merciful to the people around us. We are challenged not to run from God when things get difficult or don’t go our way and to keep our feet grounded in God and our eyes open to the needs of others.

Have a great Monday everyone!

Daily Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name; Your kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Take some time to say one Our Father, a simple prayer to enliven your journey through life today!

A Runner’s Thoughts: “Running is a mental [and spiritual] sport, more than anything else. You're only as good as your training, and your training is only as good as your thinking [and your praying].” (Lauren Oliver) So take some time to think and pray today!

Daily Blessing: Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a great weekend and that your team or teams all won. If they didn’t just remember there is always, tomorrow, next week or next year!

I looks to be a partly sunny, partly cloudy day here in Pelham. Fall is certainly in the air but in a good and life giving way. I hope the day has started off well wherever you are. I will home all day waiting for the dishwasher repair person. This is the third time in two years that this dishwasher has been broken – can we all say lemon! Who know how long this repair will take. Otherwise it is nice to be home and I have a lot of paperwork that needs done before I hit the road again so not all will be lost.

May God’s blessings be upon you today. Blessings that help you to live your truth; to express your love; to share your enthusiasm; to walk by faith; to dance and sing to your music; to embrace your blessings; to make today worth remembering; and to offer the world and those around you the gift that God has created you to be!

Blessings to all and have a great Monday everyone! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 10/04/2015

Daily Thoughts: “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of one single candle.” (St. Francis of Assisi) – Children are our candles… (Note a special prayer today for the four wonderful candles in my family - Emilia, Kristina, Natalie Ann and Michael!)

I have always liked the Gospel reading for today, Jesus’ welcoming of little children.  It is imagery that can speak to us even when we are not little anymore. It seems to make things a lot less complicated and it reminds us of the gifts that children and childhood to us.

When I think of what we as a culture, a society and as a church have done to children and childhood down through the centuries I feel a profound sadness. I know that my childhood was very instrumental in helping me be the man of faith that I have become. I am profoundly grateful that I had wonderful people in my life as a child who showed me the Kingdom of God even thought I probably didn’t understand at the time.

My prayer each day is that all children can and will experience the wonder and joy that should be part of growing up. My hope is that all children get a chance to live in the moment. That they experience the joy of playing baseball or flying a kite or jumping into the deep and making it to the side. I hope and pray they feel the joy of swinging on a swing or running down a hill or eating the biggest ice cream cone ever.  Children are special. They make God ever so real and anyone who take away a child’s joy, wonder and innocents does not deserve the Kingdom.

As we listen to the words of Jesus remind us of the value of children today and as we remember the gift of St. Francis, perhaps one of the best examples of what it means to be childlike. Let us remember that each new day holds a surprise for us if we approach it with the wonder and awe of a child and if we do so God just might be around every corner!

God invites us to experience joy and wonder in our lives, to be in the present moment, and to find his presence around every corner. God always offers us unconditional love and acceptance perhaps something we first felt as a child, but it is available every day and every moment of our life.

Let us embrace the child in us and get ready for God’s blessings. Perhaps St. Francis says it best – “We should seek not so much to pray but to become prayer.” Isn’t that what children do!

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

Daily Prayer:

Lord, make us an instrument 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;

And 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.

(Adapted from the prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “Running is a thing worth doing not because of the future rewards it bestows, but because of how it feeds our bodies and minds and souls in the present.” (Kevin Nelson) Feed your soul today!

Daily Blessing: Sunday greetings and blessings to all and happy Feast of St. Francis of Assisi! Sorry for not posting yesterday but I had some computer problems my last day in Nova Scotia and I did not get them worked out until earlier this morning. It was a long day of waiting and travel yesterday but I am back home with great memories of my time north of the border.

It was good to finally get home about 10 pm last night and this morning I have been working on my computer and just trying to settle back in at home after a couple of weeks on the road. I hope your Sunday has started off well. It is chilly and cloudy here in Pelham sort of a carryover from my last few days in Nova Scotia. Hopefully things will clear out sometime in the coming week after the hurricane passes.

I hold in my prayers this morning once again all those who died or were wounded in the Roseburg, Oregon shooting, their families and all who mourn the loss of a loved one or friend. I also hold in my prayers today the Synod of Bishops on the family beginning in Rome today. I pray that compassionate, merciful and loving reflection will take place so that we might move forward in a life giving way as a church and a world.

My prayer of blessing this morning is that the gentle, loving and peaceful spirit of St. Francis will be with you today and always. That the richness and beauty of God’s creation which St. Francis so loved, will touch you as you walk through this day. That the grace of God’s loving presence that St. Francis so lived will be present to you as you live through this day. And that the gentleness of God’s peace that St. Francis gave to the world, will guide you through this day and always.

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul