Daily Thoughts - 06/28/2014

Daily Thoughts: Today we celebrate the second half of our focus on the heart. It is Mary’s Immaculate Heart that we honor today. There are many things we can say about Mary’s heart but the virtue that stands out most to me about Mary is strength. I think Mary’s heart was truly a heart of strength.

In the Gospel today Luke tells us that Mary kept all the experience of Jesus in her heart. She kept the joys and sorrows, the miracles and the opposition, the quiet moments and the great crowds, the mother and father moments of family and the community moments of discipleship. Mary kept the triumphant moments of shepherds, angels, kings and palms and failing moments of whips, nails, wooden crosses and death on a hill. Yes, Mary kept all things in her heart so she needed a very strong heart to hold all the experiences of life that she encountered from early on. Mary was truly a woman, a mother of great strength, a strength that came from and was nourished, feed and supposed by her heart.

As I said yesterday the heart is central to who we are as a human being. Whether we are speaking about our physical, emotion or spiritual life the heart plays a central role in how we live our life. Mary’s heart was a heart of strength carrying the grace of God’s presence in her life. Her strength enabled her to say “yes” to God and then watch as that “yes” unfolded in the life, passion, death and resurrection of her son, Jesus.

Mary, woman of strength, hold us in your heart that we too may be strong in living our journey of life!

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

Daily Prayer:

All Loving God, as we honor the Immaculate Heart of Mary this day, we ask that by the help of her prayers we might strengthen our own hearts and come to share your blessings this day and always.

O holy Mary, mother of all mercy, you are our life, our love and our hope. This day we call out to you, in all our humanness, in all our failings. To you we send our prayers, our thoughts, our tears, our joys. Turn your eyes, O most loving Mother toward us that we might always hold the presence of your Loving Son in our lives.

O Compassionate, O Loving, O Tender Mother Mary. Direct our prayers always though Christ, your Son, our Savior.  Amen! (Adapted from the Prayer - Hail Holy Queen)

A Runner’s Thoughts: One way to look at running is as a tool, a device or practice that aids the user in our quest to pray. If we are intent about moving along the spiritual path, then it only makes sense to use those aspects of our live that already fill our days. So spend some time in prayer today go for a run! (Adapted from Roger Joslin)

Daily Blessing: Happy Saturday everyone and blessing on this Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary! I hope everyone’s Saturday has started off well and that you are looking forward to a great day!

It is a beautiful sunny day here in Manitowoc. We will finish up our week of retreat this morning with the celebration of mass in about 45 minutes. I think it has been a good week I have gotten a lot of nice feedback from the sisters. Please offer a prayer for the sisters who have been on retreat this week that they will be truly renewed as they return to their ministries and communities.

I have a little break now until I start a second week of retreat here tomorrow with a new group of sisters so I am headed to Green Bay today to visit Lambeau Field. I figured being I am this close I should visit one of the great cathedrals of football!

my prayer this morning is that Good will bless all of you today with a beautiful day, one in which you will get to celebrate the gift of life with family, friends and people who enjoy life. May you be blessed with a day that is fun and filled with moments and people of joy and hope. May you be blessed with a day of rest and enjoyment. Please know as always, you are in my prayers. Be safe today if you are going to be out and about. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

PS There is an interesting article in NCR worth the read… http://ncronline.org/news/people/could-baseball-player-roberto-clemente-become-saint

Daily Thoughts - 06/27/2014

Daily Thoughts: Our focus today and tomorrow is the “heart,” The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The heart is the center of who we are, physically, emotionally and spiritually. It is the place where we often think of God’s presence within us.

Think for a moment, in a physical way the heart is the center of who we are. It is the pump that pushes life through us. Without it we can do nothing. All our other organs, muscles, bones and assorted other things are important but it is the heart that keeps us alive that makes everything we do, say and feel possible.

Emotionally the heart is central to what we feel. It is the home of the emotions. On February 14th we do not receive or send a card with a gallbladder on the front that says, “I love you!” No we send a card with a heart on the front. The heart is the place of feelings and emotions. If we were to write a song, a poem or a story about love we would talk about the heart. A broken heart means we have lost at or been hurt by love.

In a spiritual way the heart is important too. The heart in a spiritual sense is the dwelling place of God. In the Old Testament, the psalmists and prophets talked about the community or individual who was without God as having a stony heart. A stony heart has no room for God, is closed to the presence of God.

So as we see the heart sits at the center of who we are as human beings. These two days remind us of just how important the heart is to us. Jesus and Mary had hearts that lead them through their journeys of life.

Jesus’ Sacred Heart teaches us about love. It is a heart full of the kind of love that leaves no one behind. Sometimes that love seems foolish but not in the eyes and heart of Jesus. Every person is valuable, ever person is important; every person is worth searching for. Now this doesn’t mean that everyone will be found because some of us don’t want to be found and some of us even when found don’t want to return. But the love of Jesus’ Sacred heart will always look, will always search and will always wait.

This Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is about love, but it is also about hope; the hope that God is always searching, looking and waiting for us because we are that special, that important. The question for today is, “Can we believe in our value, can we believe in our specialness, can we believe in God’s love for us, can we hope in the fact that God will find us and bring us home?”

Have a blessed Friday everyone! May the love of God found in the Sacred Heart of Jesus embrace you today and always! And don’t forget to make a joyful noise with your life today.

Daily Prayer: We come to you Jesus on the Feast of your Sacred Heart, for you are our refuge and our hope. You are the strength that keeps us going through all that is wrong in the our lives, the forgiveness for all our faults and failings, the comfort for all our struggles, the peace for all our anxieties, the enhancement for all our imperfections, and the hope in all our prayers.

You are the only one who never wearies of us and who offers us grace in the midst of our faults, because you love us with an infinite love. You are the one always in search of us especially when we follow a different path.

So we ask you loving Jesus, to have mercy on us and do with us, and be for us, and be within us, whatever you want. We give our hearts to you, hoping that the gift of love that flows from your most Sacred Heart will never leave us to face the struggles and difficulties of life alone.  Amen.

A Runner’s Thoughts: Holiness is not something we can build into a run. Running does not make us holy. However, we can make our run holy by bringing to our run a sense of God’s Presence. Thus we can transform our run from the ordinary to the sacred. (Adapted from Roger Joslin- Running the Spiritual Path)

Daily Blessing: TGIF everyone! Happy Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus! We are in our last full day of retreat here in Manitowoc and all the sisters are still with me at least I think they are! Please keep them in your prayers and say a little prayer that their preacher can find a few more words of wisdom for them today!

I hope your Friday has started off well wherever you are and in whatever you are doing. The official start to the weekend is not far away so I pray that God will bless these morning and afternoon hours of your Friday so that they will go quickly and bring you into the gift of another weekend. I pray that you and those you love will be blessed by God’s Love as we celebrated it in the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus today. If you are traveling be safe, if you are busy working be safe. Most of all may you be blessed with a Friday you can enjoy and may it be filled with interesting people, wonderful experiences, fun, joy, faith, hope and the presence of God! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 06/26/2014

Daily Thoughts: There was a poster I once saw that said, “If you were to be put on trial for being a Christian, would you be found guilty?” Perhaps that is what Jesus is getting at in the Gospel today (Matt 7:21-29). It is not about what we say; it is about how we live especially when there is a storm.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” If we are to be people of faith, we need to be Christ like.

As Jesus images in the Gospel, our faith needs to be built on God, our rock, so that when the storms come and the winds blow we stand firm. It does not mean that we don’t sway a little; that we are not pushed at times to our limits; or that the electricity doesn’t go off from time to time. What it does mean is that when the storm is over, the wind stop blowing and the sun comes out we are still standing and a member of the Body of Christ!

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

Daily Prayer:

Loving God, help us today;

 To live life as an opportunity and benefit from it;

 To live life as beauty and admire it;

 To live life as a dream and realize it;

 To see life as a challenge and meet it;

 To live life as duty and complete it;

 To see life as a game and play it;

 To live life as a promise and fulfill it;

 To live life as sorrow and overcome it;

 To live life as a song and sing it;

 To live life as a struggle and accept it;

 To live life as a tragedy and confront it;

 To live life as an adventure and dare it;

 To live life as luck and make it;

 To live life as too precious and not destroy it;

 To live life as life and embrace it to the fullest. Amen!

(Adapted from a quote by Blessed Mother Teresa)

A Runner’s Thoughts: In an ancient rabbinic saying it is said that when we human beings journey we are preceded by angels crying, “Make way! May way! Here comes the image of God!” So when we run next let us be the image of God!

Daily Blessing: Happy Thursday and blessings to everyone! Sorry I am a little late today but the retreat business is busy and I was moving a bit slower this morning so I didn’t get a chance to put down my thoughts until now. I hope you are having a good day!

Here in Manitowoc at Holy Family Convent we continue our journey of retreat and I haven’t lost anyone yet at least that I know of. I would ask you to continue to keep the sisters on retreat in your prayers and if you have the chance to say an extra prayer could you remember their preacher. I would also ask you to remember a young man and woman who are struggling mightily. They both find themselves in a bit of darkness and are trying to make sense out of the hand life has dealt them at this moment. They are in need of prayer and they certainly are in my prayers but I could use some help praying for them so if you have the time please join me in asking God to show them his love!

I pray that God is blessing you with a wonderful day. May all your endeavors be rich in the presence, grace, love, joy and hope of God. Remember to try and be a joyful, hopeful presence to all you meet today! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 06/25/2014

Daily Thoughts: At times when I face the scriptures for a particular day I want to just close the book and tell the community gathered, “Let’s all just sit quietly and listen to what God is saying to us today.” Well, I had that feeling early this morning when I looked at the readings for today (2Kings 22: 8-13; 23: 1-3 and Matthew 7: 15-20). The theme whether we are looking at the first reading or the Gospel seems to be laws, rules, regulation. I have to admit these are not my favorite topics for conversation or preaching. I know that they are important. I know that laws, rules and regulations are necessary. Yet, maybe the focus of today’s readings is not just about the dos and don’ts of life, the rights and wrongs. Perhaps the challenge of our readings today can be found in these words by Thomas Merton:

“To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything. 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.”

If we recognize the Love of God in ourselves and in others we produce good fruit! Have a great Wednesday everyone and don’t forget to make a joyful noise with your life today!

Daily Prayer:

O God, we thank you for the gift of this day.

Give us the energy we need to face our work; with the attentiveness we need to do it well.

Give us the self-discipline we need to finish it even if no one sees and no one praises us.

Give us the self-respect which will inspire us not to produce anything which is less than our best.

Give us the courtesy and the considerateness which will make us easy to live and work with.

Help us to live today so that we will make the world a happier more hopeful place wherever we go. Amen! (Adapted from a prayer by William Barclay)

A Runner’s Thoughts: A smile as we run can help us remain focused, it often causes others to smile back which can be uplifting and perhaps most importantly it can remind us that that we have been graced by God. So as when we had out for our next run let’s put a smile on our face!

Another thought – “To be a consistent winner means preparing not just one day, one month or even one year - but for a lifetime.” (Bill Rodgers) I know Bill Rodgers is talking about running, racing, but I also think you can apply what he says to faith. Faith is a lifetime of preparation, work and investment. We need to be about faith, our relationship with God each and every day!

Daily Blessing: “Hump Day” blessings and greetings to all! I hope this midpoint of the week will be kind to you. Our retreat here at Holy Family Convent the motherhouse of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity is going well. The sisters have all settled into the routine of retreat and I as preacher am constantly trying to stay one step ahead of them. Please keep the sisters in your prayers and if you have the time offer a prayer for the preacher too!

My prayer of blessing for all of you today is that you will have a great day wherever you are and in whatever you will be doing! May this day be one filled with blessings, hope, peace, laughter and sun! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul