Daily Thoughts - 06/20/2015

Daily Thought: There is a verse in St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians that I often ponder. “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:1-10). Over the years I have come to realize just how true this statement is. God’s grace is enough and power is much more powerful when it comes out of weakness.

We spend a good portion of our life seeking some sort of power; the power of love, the power of fame, the power of important, the power of success, the power of accomplishment,, the power of wealth, the power of comfort, the power of self. There are many powers that we seek, yet it is only when we realize that we are powerless that the true power, the power of God is recognized.

It is at the moments of our life when we let go and let God that we are truly powerful people. It is at the moments of our life when we trust in the grace of God that we are truly powerful people.

Now this is not an easy answer to come to, sometimes it takes a life time. Just look at St. Paul’s life. It took an experience of the Risen Christ along the road to Damascus for Paul to begin to understand real power in his life.

Often for us, it is not a profound experience of the Risen Christ but the ordinary struggles, challenges and sorrows of life that can help us come to the source of real power. It is coming to the realization that we cannot serve two masters as Jesus points out in the Gospel (Matthew 6:24-34). It is making the conscious choice to put God at the center of our life. It is trusting in the reality that when we are weak we are strong. It is not worrying about tomorrow but living today!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will, all I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me. (A prayer by St. Ignatius Loyola)

A Runner’s Thoughts: Running can be a time for finding out who we really are, it is time on the road, the sidewalk, the trial with no one to measure our distance but ourselves.  Running can be finding out our true character as we run lap after lap. It can be not giving up when exhausted and journeying to the finish. Running can help us to trust in ourselves and know somehow that God’s grace is enough for us.

Daily Blessing: Saturday greetings and blessings to all! I hope your Saturday has started off well? It is a somewhat sunny morning here in Carmel, Indiana. It is just nice to not see rain for a change. Summer will officially arrive tomorrow but we might say that today is a beautiful summer day!

Well friends I hope this day will be a good one for you. I pray that God will bless your day today. May you be gifted and blessed with smiles, laughter, family, friends, fun and peace today! And be safe out there if you are traveling!  Have a great day and may you be blessed with God’s joy in whatever you do and wherever you go. May God’s joy be found in the people you meet today and within you! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 06/19/2015

Daily Thoughts: There is a poem by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, who was the Superior General of the Society of Jesus for almost 20 years, which I like very much.

Nothing is more practical than

finding God, that is, than

falling in love

in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,

what seizes your imagination,

will affect everything.

It will decide

what will get you out of bed

in the morning,

what you do with your evenings,

how you spend your weekends,

what you read, who you know,

what breaks your heart,

and what amazes you with

joy and gratitude.

Fall in love, stay in love,

and it will decide everything.

I thought of it as I read today’s Gospel (Matthew 6:19-23). Where is your treasure? Who or what do you love? Seem to be the questions of the day. Is it God? The words of the Gospel today challenge us to find our treasure in God, but also to move beyond simple academic statements about God and love.  Jesus asks us to allow our living of life to reveal to us what we really believe and value. The path we take in life can be a helpful, important, and challenging window in helping us recognize where our hearts are, what and who we are in love with, and where our treasure truly lies.

Have a great Friday everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God, we thank you this day for loving us and we open our hearts and ask you to come in. Please make our hearts your home now and forever. Teach us where our hearts must be and be the true treasure in our life. Help us to always make you the center of our life. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: If we approach each run as a pilgrimage and believe that the realizations of our goals of this running pilgrimage happen with each step taken, then we are truly wandering down a sacred path. Our runs become holy. If we run with a sense of the sacred in our heart we transform the earth beneath our feet into holy ground. If we run with the intention to find God, then we become pilgrims. If we have the pilgrim’s sacred intention then we change a simple, humble run into “God’s Run!” (Adapted from Roger Joslin – Running the Spiritual Path)

Daily Blessing: Friday greetings and blessings to all and may this be a day of many blessings! We find ourselves on the verge of officially entering summer which will happen on Sunday June 21 at 12:38 P.M. EDT. I hope summer has come to where you are and that you are getting a chance to enjoy it!

I will be finishing up the priest retreat this morning and heading east after lunch. I will be making my way back to Indianapolis for the weekend and then on to South Bend, Indiana on Monday. I continue to ask your prayers for the priests who journeyed with me this week and for their safe travel back to their parishes and ministries.

I hope your week has gone well and that you will get a chance to enjoy the weekend that is almost upon us. Have a great Friday everyone and may God bless you as you journey through this day. May today be rich in God’s grace for you, your loved ones and everyone you meet. May your work today be blessed with the richness of God’s presence. May any traveling you might be doing be safe and bring you home this evening to those you love. Enjoy these last days of spring everyone and may your Friday be filled with God’s love! Peace in Christ Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 06/18/2015

Daily Thoughts:  I am going to divide my thoughts for today into two sections. First I would like to reflect on why June 18^th has special meaning for me and then I would like to touch on the Gospel for today.

First June 18^th – my thoughts today center around two quotes from Thomas Merton. The first is from his book, New Seeds of Contemplation and the second is from the book, Thoughts in Solitude.

“Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.” (New Seeds of Contemplation)

“Ask me not where I live or what I like to eat . . . Ask me what I am living for and what I think is keeping me from living fully that.” (Thoughts in Solitude)

I picked these two quotes today because it is the 29^th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood and I am hoping that over my life time especially these last 29 years I have worked with God to find my identity and that I am truly living for Jesus even though at times my humanness, my struggles, my faults and failing get in the way of my friendship with God and in my service to others.

As I celebrate this day, I turn to my good friend, St. Paul, for guidance and strength in the hope that I will always live every aspect of my life in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love of God as it is found in our Lord Jesus Christ. And that I will always excel in the gracious act of love that God has given to me by making sure my love for God and others is always genuine.

As I celebrate today I pray for all who have touch my life especially during the last 29 years! Thank you all for helping me be the man of faith, the Passionist and priest I am today even in the midst of my faults and failings. May I always serve you out of God’s love.

Now on to today’s Gospel. Today’s readings 29 years ago were not on June 18^th they were on the following day Thursday June 19^th. I remember the 19^th 29 years ago very clearly. It was the morning after my ordination day. All of my family had gather in New York and after the ordination spent the night at our Passionist retreat house in Jamaica, NY which is where the ordination took place. At 10 am on that Thursday morning I was going to celebrate my very first mass ever with my family. I would celebrate my official first mass on Saturday evening but this morning would be my actual first mass. I had not looked at the readings because of all the busyness leading up to my ordination day.

So early this morning 29 years ago, June 19, 1986, I awakened and wandered down the hall to the retreat house chapel to look at the readings and prepared for my first mass. When I got to the Gospel I could not believe what I read. It was today’s Gospel from Matthew about Jesus teaching his disciples to pray, specifically to pray the Our Father. I put the book down and tears welled up in my eyes and I just sat there for about an hour unable to prepare any more.

For you see the Our Father was one of the last prayers I prayed with my father before he died some four years before. It was a December night in 1982, I was in my father’s hospital room late that night and as I was about to leave he asked me to pray with him. I was more than happy to do so and I asked him what prayer he wanted to pray and he said, “The Our Father.” I began to say the words and notice that my dad was not praying so I stopped and asked what was wrong. Dad said, “I don’t remember the words.” His illness had begun to affect his mind. So I said, “No problem” and suggested that I say a few words of the prayer and that he repeat them after me. Do you know how hard it is to say the Our Father when you have to stop and think about what you are saying? Well, we got through the prayer and dad became very peaceful and for the most part remained peaceful over the last few weeks of his life. I have always remembered that moment.

I had wanted my dad to see me ordained but that was not to be but on that Thursday morning 29 years I realized that he was with me and had been with me all along. I have never prayed the Our Father at mass, during the rosary or at any other time and not thought about that moment. What power there is in this simple prayer, what a gift this simple prayer is to all who pray it.

I would invite you at some moment today to pause and slowly, deliberately pray the Our Father. Listen to the words. Realize what God offers you through the words of this simple prayer and what God asks of you.

By the way thanks Dad! Have a great Thursday everyone!

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.

A Runner’s Thoughts: Let us remember always when we run to search for God in the ordinary. Each run is a pilgrimage, not to Rome, Jerusalem or some other place we consider holy or important, but it is a pilgrimage nonetheless. Our run may be nothing more than a trip around the neighborhood or on our favorite running route but if our intention is to converse with God, then we are a pilgrim. It is the very ordinariness of the run that enables it to become a central part of our life. With each run we embark on a pilgrimage of the ordinary where we will always have the chance to find God! (Adapted from Roger Joslin)

Daily Blessing: Thursday greetings and blessings to everyone! I am greeting ready to begin the fourth day of retreat for the priests of the Jefferson City Diocese. In a moment I will head down to breakfast and then I have the morning conference and at 11:00 am I will preach at mass so it will be a busy morning and day for that matter. Please keep the priests who are on retreat in your prayers today and if you could say an extra prayer for the preacher it would be greatly appreciated!

I would like to send a shout out to my brother, Jim, on this his birthday! Happy Birthday, Bro, many blessings today and always. I will see you probably a week from today and we will celebrate then!

I hope your day has started off well. It looks like another cloudy, humid day here in St. Louis and I would guess we will get some rain along the way. Perhaps the sun is out where you are. Whatever the weather I hope your day is filled with the presence of God and your journey through it is guided by God’s grace.

On this anniversary day of mine I pray you will have a great day and that you know that all of you continue to be in my prayers. May God’s blessings today be upon your work, your travel, your encounters with others, your struggling moments, your smiling moments and upon all that you do and all whom you meet…Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 06/17/2015

Daily Thoughts: “God loves the cheerful giver.” This little sentence from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians seems to really sum up both reading today (2Cor. 9:6-11 and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18). St. Paul talks about being a person of generosity while Jesus challenges us to be humble people of prayer and service.

In the Gospel we hear those familiar phrases. “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.”  In each case the most important reward comes not in the world knowing that we do things but in God knowing.

St. Paul seems to be saying that we need to remember that the things we do come from God and the more cheerful we are; the humble and open we are with the giving of our gifts then the more abundant God will make our giving.

I think the grace and the challenge of the message of these two readings today is that what we have is a gift from God and in sharing this gift it becomes far more profound than we ever thought it could be. However, for this gift to have power, impact and abundance we need to share it – not for our glory and praise but for the glory and praise of God.

Have a great day everyone!

Daily Prayer: Eternal and loving God, it is so easy for us to worship ourselves, to do things so that others see and think highly of us. If we live our life this way, forgive us. If we trust in our possessions, in our things, in our actions that are seen and in the glory that they bring us rather than in you, forgive us. Heal the fear, the doubt and the insecurity that may create faith in the wrong things. Restore a wholesome perspective that put you at the center. We pray that through your grace you will help us to live life around the lasting values of humble prayer, cheerful service and our hope in you, our loving God. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: Let us run today with a spirit of gratefulness. Before we begin our run, let us declare our intention to look upon all we encounter with the freshness of the unexpected. Let us run with a sense of miraculous expectation and allow a feeling of gratitude for the extraordinary and the ordinary to flow through our being. (Adapted from Roger Joslin – Running The Spiritual Path)

Daily Blessing: Wednesday greetings and blessings to all! It looks to be another cloudy, humid and rainy day here in St. Louis. It makes getting out and enjoying the beautiful grounds here at the Mercy Center a little difficult but just like yesterday today will be a good day in its own way!

I hope that same is true where you are. If your day has not started off so well I truly pray that it will get better and that you will come to enjoy the gift of this day, because your presence makes this day a gift!

The priest retreat that I am giving here at the Mercy Center seems to be going well. There will be a morning talk and mass and then the rest of the day will be free for all. You might say it is sort of the midpoint of the retreat. I once again ask that you offer a prayer for the priests on retreat and if you could also include their preacher it would be greatly appreciated!

I pray today for blessing upon all of you and your journey through this day. May the day be rich in experience, in people, in smiles, in laughter, in fun, in love, in strength and in God’s grace, in joy and in peace. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul