Daily Thoughts - 04/25/2015

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 day everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God, let us draw upon the inspiration of St. Mark today, a character of the early Church who proclaimed the Good News through his preaching and writing. May we be characters 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 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: Saturday 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.

Hopefully in about twenty minutes I will be on the road and headed for St. Louis. My first stop will be Carmel, Indiana for the night and then on to St. Louis on Sunday. I will begin a retreat for priests on Monday evening in St. Louis. I ask your prayers for safe travel and for the twenty eight priests who will be on retreat next week and if you could say a little extra prayer for the preacher, he would greatly appreciate it!

May you all have a great Saturday filled with many blessings and graced with many moments that put a smile on your face. Please know that you are in my prayers today as I drive west as I will have a lot of solitude time today! Peace in Christ’s Passion and Hope in the Risen Lord…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 04/22/2015

Daily Thoughts: When I read the accounts in today first reading from the Acts of the Apostles about the things that happened after St. Stephen’s death. I am always caught by the fact that even though Saul was hell bent on destroying the Church God was able to change his heart and lead him to become the great Apostle Paul. It gives me hope that someone so focused on the negative, so wanting to destroy, so against the presence of some people in the world was able to become a person of joy, of peace, of love and of hope.

God did not fight Saul’s attack on his Church with vengeance, with force, with power, with war. God did not seek to destroy Saul. God did not seek to judge Saul. No God dealt with Saul’s attack through truth, compassion, love and with an invitation to be part of the community. Somehow with words of kindness, with words of compassion, with words and gestures of love God turned Saul’s heart and created someone new Paul.

Often as we encounter our world and all its problems we think we must fight, we think that we must eliminate our enemies. We think that making fun of them, that degrading them with our words, that attacking them with half-truths, cartoons and witty jokes we will overcome them. We think that pointing to their faults and failings, that being hurtful we are doing God’s will and that we will win the battle and the war.

Yet, God has always showed us that power, vengeance and war never works. These are not the solutions to our problems or the avenues to peace. In Saul’s case God invited him to become part of the community. God invited Saul to see God in his life in a different way. God invited Saul to choose life not death. God invited Saul to a change of heart. God invited Saul to be a man of hope and love. God turn Saul’s energy of violence and hate into an energy of love, compassion, hope, joy and peace.

If we truly want our world, our culture, our society to change then perhaps rather than waging war, rather than fearing those we see as enemies, rather than attacking, rather than dismissing or making fun of those we don’t like, we should invite them into the conversation. We should extend the hand of friendship. We should invite them to be part of the community. We should show them the value of faith, hope and love. We should help them to see the light of life!

Have a great day everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God, bless us this day with a faith that can move mole hills and mountains, that has an unseen healing touch, that lives everyday stories, celebrates simple suppers and helps us carry the crosses of life so that they turn into hope filled resurrections. Help us to see the goodness in ourselves and others. Grace us with your loving presence and enliven us with hope so that we can share your presence with everyone we meet. Keep us ever mindful today of those who are in need of prayer because they are struggle with life in some way. Help us to live this day alive in joy, faith, hope and love for all who struggle, for all who carry crosses, for all who seek peace! Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: Let us run with God, the Eternal Runner, beside us and within us. If we can’t run, let us walk with God the Eternal Walker, beside us and within us.  Whatever we can do today let us do it as a prayer so that the joy of God may be encounter in the world today through us!

Daily Blessing: Greetings and blessings to all on this Wednesday, this “Hump Day”! I hope and pray you are having a good day. We had a wonderful closing to the mission last night. Today I will remain in the Harrisburg area to have dinner this evening with some former retreatants from our Riverdale Retreat Center then I will travel home tonight because I have a funeral mass tomorrow morning in the Astoria section of Queens and then on Friday we have an all-day taping session for the Sunday Mass.  So as you can see it is a busy week.

So I am going to enjoy a morning and afternoon here in the Harrisburg area that will not be busy. Perhaps I will take a little walk along the Susquehanna River at some point. I think it will be nice to have a little quiet time before returning to a rather busy schedule. I pray your life is not too busy and if it is that you can find a little time to relax and enjoy the beauty of these spring day. The sun is out here in Enola this morning and it is supposed to be with us throughout the day. I guess I lucked out!

I pray for God’s blessings upon all of you today were ever you are, upon whatever you are or will be doing and upon whomever you meet. May all of you be gifted with a blessed, holy and faith filled day rich in the presence and grace of God and with this richness may you all make a joyful noise today! Peace in Christ’s Passion and Hope in the Risen Christ…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 04/21/2015

Daily Thoughts: Yesterday I watched some of the Boston Marathon and I was glad that the race went off without any problems unlike two years ago when tragedy took place in the midst of the race. As I reflected in the readings this morning my thoughts returned to the Boston Marathon two years ago.

The story of St. Stephen’s death in the Acts of the Apostles made me think about what happen at the marathon two years ago. Here was Stephen just being a good and faith filled person and a crazy mob comes along and stones him to death. A mob of people not thinking about life, about goodness, about being positive but a mob of people only thinking about themselves. A mob of people focused on selfishness, on fear, on evil.  Stephen remain the “bigger person” Stephen remained the faith filled person, Stephen remained the person of life not death.

In Boston two years ago many people were about life, were about hope, were about joy, were about all that is good in our culture and our society and like Stephen they paid the price. Some with their lives, some with their injuries and all with what a brief moment took away from our bodies, our spirits and our souls. It was not a mob, it was two miss guided, angry young men who were about death, negativity, fear, and evil. They thought they were doing God’s work however they were doing the work of evil and unfortunately as good people we are often reminded by the misguided of how much evil is still present in our world.

But like Stephen I think the people of Boston two years ago, the runners, the spectators, all good people remained the “bigger person,” they remained faith filled people, they remained the people of life and not death. They remained the people of light not darkness. They remained people of trust and freedom not fear. They remained people of hope not despair.

As the two year anniversary of the marathon bombing was remembered yesterday the people of Boston find themselves in the midst of deciding what should happen to one of their attackers. Should he be put to death or given life. I am sure for some there is an easy answer – death! But my hope is that we will like St. Stephen will continue to be “bigger people” that we will be people of life. My hope is that we will draw upon our relationship with God, with Jesus and not give in to vengeance or revenger but give into Jesus, the Bread of Life.

Congratulations to all the runners yesterday, congratulations to the city of Boston may the joy and the gift of goodness celebrated yesterday continue to live on and may it remind of the Bread of Life, Jesus who is always in our midst.

Have a blessed and joyous Tuesday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Lord God, we have no idea where we are going. We do not see the road ahead of us. We cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do we really know ourselves, and the fact that we think we are following your will does not mean that we are actually doing so. But we believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And we hope we have that desire in all that we are doing. We hope that we will never do anything apart for that desire. And we know that if we do this you will lead us by the right road though we may know nothing about it. Therefore we will trust you always though we may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. We will not fear, for you are ever with us, and you will never leave us to face our perils alone. Amen! (Adapted from a prayer by Thomas Merton)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “The marathon [or any race for that matter] is an opportunity for redemption. Opportunity, because the outcome is uncertain. Opportunity, because it is up to you, and only you, to make it happen.” ( Dean Karnazes) So to in the spiritual life – our relationship with God is an opportunity, an opportunity for redemption, an opportunity that is up to us to make it happen – to choose God!

Daily Blessings: Tuesday greetings and blessings to all! I hope you are all well and enjoying the gift of a new day. Heavy thunder storms rolled through Enola last night but the sun is out this morning and it looks like it will be a beautiful day!

We had a wonderful second evening of mission last night and even though the thunderstorms were all around us and the rain poured down it was a spirit filled evening. Please keep the faith community here at Our Lady of Lourdes in your prayers as we prepare to close the mission this evening. Also if you could say a little prayer for their preacher he would greatly appreciate it!

My prayer of blessing today is that we may all have a safe and productive day, rich in the presence of God and filled with God’s love and peace. May we all be held closely by God today and may we all truly know that we are loved today! Peace in Christ’s Passion and Hope in the Risen Lord…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 04/20/2015

Daily Thoughts: Today’s readings are preludes to tomorrow stories, the martyrdom of Stephen and Jesus’ discourse on the “Bread of Life.” In some ways we can say that today’s readings are about seeing and hearing and we learn that some people only see and hear what they want to see and hear. When we live life this way we open ourselves to the possibility of missing the gift, the presence of God in our life.

The religious leaders surrounding Stephen today only see and hear what they want to see and hear. They miss the very gift from God that Stephen brings to them, the very gift of God that Stephen is. They miss a chance to grow, to see and hear thing differently. They have already decided who and what Stephen is thus God has no chance.

The people following after Jesus in today’s Gospel are caught up in the miracles that Jesus has performed. They are not listening to his words, they are not open to the presence of God, they want more miraculous things. Jesus reminds them that in order for good things to happen they have to be open to the gift and presence of God in their lives. That they have to believe not in what they see and hear but in the presence of Jesus in their lives!

Often we only see and hear what we want. God can be speaking to us, calling us down a new path but we miss it. Today let us open our eyes, our ears and our hearts to the many different ways that God can be present in our lives especially those ways beyond what we want to see and hear!

Have a great Monday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God open our minds and hearts to the gift of your presence. Helps us to see you and hear you in every person we encounter, every experience we have and every moment we live today. Grace us with eyes and ears that don’t just see and hear the obvious but that are open to every way you come into our lives. Enable us to be your Easter people of faith, hope and love today and always. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: As we run today let us look at our run this way that everywhere we put our foot today we will feel the presence of God. God is our friend and our closeness to our friend God is in the placement of our foot with each stride we take during our run. We run today knowing that God is underneath us, beside us, within us!

Daily Blessing: Monday greetings and blessings and Happy Patriots Day to all! Especially all the runner’s currently running the Boston Marathon. My prayers are with all the runners, may their run be a good run and may it be safe run! And to all you non-runners out there I hope your Monday has started well and you are having a good start to this new week

I am in Enola, PA at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish where I began a mission last night with a wonderful spirit filled community. It was a great Saturday and Sunday of preaching and then last night we had our first session of the mission. I am looking forward to our second session this evening. Please keep the faith community here at Our Lady of Lourdes and their preacher in your prayers these days.

Even though it is raining today it is still a good day to be alive and walking the journey of faith. My prayer of blessing this morning is that God will bless your day with the faith of St. Stephen, the hope of a new day and week and the love of many people in your life. Many you be blessed with God’s presence in your travels, your work and your encounters with others. May you be graced with much love from the people who mean the most in your life! Blessings upon everyone this week have a great Monday and a great week. You can be assured of my prayers as you journey through this week. I hope your weather is warming up and that you will have a rich and faith filled week! Peace in Christ’s Passion and Joy in the Risen Christ…Fr. Paul