Making a Joyful Noise through Lent 03/11/2014

Making a Joyful Noise through Lent – 03/11/2014

“The real newness [of the Gospel]is the newness which God himself mysteriously brings about and inspires, provokes, guides and accompanies in a thousand ways. The life of the Church should always reveal clearly that God takes the initiative, that “he has loved us first” (1 Jn 4:19) and that he alone “gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7). This conviction enables us to maintain a spirit of joy in the midst of a task so demanding and challenging that it engages our entire life. God asks everything of us, yet at the same time he offers everything to us.” (Pope Francis – Evangelii Gaudium – The Joy of the Gospel)

These simple words from Pope Francis today seem to sit at the heart of our readings from Isaiah and Matthew today. What God offers us, what God does for us, what God expects or asks of us. God is the first to love and it is God the helps us grow as people of joy.  If we think about the words of the Our Father as we pray it we are simply reminded the God asks everything of us but at the same time God offer us everything!

The joy of God's Word in our life is like nothing else. As our first reading from Isaiah (Isaiah 55:10-11) remains us it cannot return to God without nurturing, correcting, healing and inspiring us. God's Word is just like the rain, it refreshes us, it softens us up and helps life to go within us and around us. God's Word is always going to grow our challenge is to allow it to joyfully grow within us.

The Our Father has always been one of my favorite prayers, perhaps because it probably was one of the first prayers I learned. It keeps me connected with the beginning of my life. It is also important to me because it is the last prayer I prayed with my father. It happened one night in the hospital not long before he died. I asked him if he wanted to pray and he said yes. We said the Our Father together and when we were finished a great feeling of loss came over me and I began to cry. My dad reached out and comforted me. I think the feeling of loss came from the fact that all that the Our Father speaks about my own father did for me in life and in praying it that night I recognized the loss that was about to take place in my life.

The hopefulness of the Our Father is that God will never leave us. That each and every day we pray this simple prayer, its promises us, its challenges us to believe that we will always be taken care of by Our Father, God. Our daily bread will always be there. Forgiveness will always be there. The care, compassion and presence of God will always be there. We just have to trust, give life to, be proclaimers of the joy that the Word of God has planted within us!

As St. Augustine puts it, "If you run through the petitions of all holy prayers, I believe you will find nothing that is not contained in the Lord's Prayer."

Have a great Tuesday everyone and don’t forget to make a joyful noise with your life today!

Daily Prayer: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy 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! (Say the words slowly and deliberately, listening to each word as you prayer!)

Runner's Thought: Running is an intensely physical activity, so the body is brought directly into play and cannot be ignored. Thus, if our run becomes a prayer, our bodies with their direct connection to the earth, the wind, the heat, the cold, the scents and the noises around us become the stimulus that brings us closer to God, reminds us of God's presence in our life and gives spirit and energy to our prayer!

Daily Blessing: Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope this find you well and off to a good start. I not hang in there my pray for you is that you day will be productive and grace filled!

Well our mission here at St. Elizabeth Parish in Rockville has gotten off to a great start. We had to great session yesterday and I look for more of the same today. There is a lot of energy and enthusiasm here which make my job, my ministry rather easy. Please continue to keep the faith community here and the preacher in your prayers!

I am thankful for the last two days of sun and warmth but I sense these days are short lived and we are heading back to the cold. Well I am thankful for the small blessings of life! My prayer of blessing for all of us today comes from our readings at mass that God’s blessing will be upon us all this day, so that the Word of God may be planted and nourished within us throughout this day and that we may bring this joyful word wherever we go and to whom ever you meet! May God’s bless us with a good day, with at least a little sun and a little warmth. Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul