Daily Thoughts - 11/07/2015

Daily Thoughts: “No servant can serve two masters.” (Luke 16:13)  No we cannot divide our focus when it comes to living life, when it comes to our faith. And so offer the following reflection so that we might focus on what really matters today…

Celebrate each moment as it comes to you…with faith, trust and gratitude. Because all that happens in our life has God’s mark on it. Each day offer a simple fiat…It can be as simple as taking a breath, or the beat of our heart, but let it say thanks God!

Seek God each and every day, not in some far off place, not in the trappings of history but in the world around us. God is always right here, in this place, in our hearts. God is right here, where we stand, where we walk, where we run, where we sit, where we lie down, in everything we do. God is right here, in our family, in our friends, even in strangers we meet.

God is in our workplace, our homes, our yards, our living rooms, our family rooms, our bed rooms. Because these are all places, altars where we offer and receive love and thankfully God is there!

Celebrate life; celebrate life with gratitude and thankfulness today and always!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God, from now on let us not desire health or life except to spend them for you and with you. You alone know what is good for us. Therefore do whatever seems best to you. Give to us or take from us. We desire to adore equally all that comes to us from you, our Lord and God. Amen. (Adapted from a prayer by Blaise Pascal)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “Struggle is the food from which change is made, and the best time to make the most of a struggle is when it's right in front of your face.

Now, I know that might sound a bit simplistic. But, too often we're led to believe that struggling is a bad thing, or that we struggle because we're doing something wrong.

I disagree. I look at struggle as an opportunity to grow. True struggle happens when you can sense what is not working for you and you're willing to take the appropriate action to correct the situation. Those who accomplish change are willing to engage the struggle.” (Danny Dreyer)

Daily Blessing: Saturday greetings and blessings to all. I hope your Saturday is starting off well. I will have a bit of a busy one as I will be celebrating a memorial mass for the Sisters of Charity this morning and then I will head to a Confirmation party this afternoon. I hope your day will be what you need it to be.

I think it is going to be another warm day here in Pelham. Perhaps not as warm as yesterday but still a little unseasonal. I will take it as some day in the future I will be longing for a little warmth to the day! It is nice to be back home for a week or so. It gives me a chance to catch up on some paperwork and do a little more planning from this coming year’s mission theme. I hope you Saturday is not too busy and that you will get to enjoy a little relaxation today.

My prayer of blessing today is – May our Loving God the source of all blessings grant us the grace of integrity of faith, endurance of hope, perseverance of love and patience in the living of life today. May God bless us with peace today and always! Blessings to all! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 11/06/2015

Daily Thoughts: The Gospel for today (Luke 16:1-8), always seems to be a confusing one. What exactly is Jesus saying? It seems that Jesus is praising the unfaithful steward just because he figures out a way to land on his feet after being fired. Perhaps the key word for Gospel today is “prudence” or maybe a better word might be “cleverness.”

Jesus says the steward is prudent, that he is shrewd, pragmatic and has foresight. However as I said above we might also say that the steward is clever, meaning he is shrewd, ingenious, crafty and skillful. Prudence and cleverness share some of the same meanings and in some instances could be used to say the same thing.

As I prepared for mass this morning I has these thoughts about the prudent and clever steward and what Jesus might be getting at in the Gospel…

In our world there are many prudent and clever people. Often as a world, a culture, a society we put our cleverness to work in many ways. We invent machines and systems that can protect us and destroy our enemies. We have invented the internet, cellphones and computers that help us communicate better, work fast and be more productive. We invent sophisticated systems to warn us of impending disasters like hurricanes, tsunamis and other nature made events. We invent systems to spy on one another, to hack computers and disrupt communications. We invent instruments of war some of which that can destroy the world. We are very clever people.

Yet up to this point in history we have not been able to figure out how to feed everyone, how to cloth everyone or how to give everyone shelter. Perhaps this gets at the point that Jesus’ is making with his parable. The people of the world are very clever but sometimes people of faith are not. We put our prudence, our cleverness, our shrewdness, our foresightedness, our skillfulness to work for ourselves, but as people of faith, it might be time to put it to work for others.

We can learn for the cleverness of the world but only if our cleverness leads us to bring God to the world.

I think Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ said it best when he wrote, “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, [humankind] will have discovered fire.”

Let us be clever people of faith and discover for the world God’s love once again.

Have a great Friday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God do not be remote from us today. Be in our work, our travel, our offices, our meetings, our relationships, our loved ones, our tasks, our journeys, our alone moments, our homes – in our thoughts, our words and in our hearts. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: “If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” (Kathrine Switzer) If you are losing faith in yourself go to the celebration of the Eucharist and look around at the community of faith that is struggling with you!

Daily Blessings: Friday greetings and blessings to all.  I have returned from my time in Columbus, Indiana. It was a long drive yesterday, 14 hours but I got home safe and sound around midnight and I was up early this morning so that I could celebrate mass at Mount St. Michael’s High School so you might say I am back in the swing of things. It looks to be a warm and sunny day here in Pelham. I hope your day has started off well and that you to will get to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation.

It was a great mission at St. Bartholomew’s and as I mentioned during the week a wonderful way to celebrate the beginning of my 62^nd year of life. St. Bartholomew’s is a wonderful faith community and I enjoy celebrating mass with the school yesterday before I life!

May God bless us all this Friday with truth, love, enthusiasm, energy and life. So that we may always walk the journey, dance to the music, sing the tune and embrace the gift of God that we are, making today and everyday worth remembering! Blessings to all. Have a great Friday everyone! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 11/05/2015

Daily Thoughts: Perhaps these three quotes help us understand our two parables this morning from Luke’s Gospel. Parables that speak to us of the mercy of God…

“The thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds. ... And you have to start from the ground up.” (Pope Francis)

“A church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” (Abigail Van Buren)

“I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.” (Pope Francis)

“God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy.” (Pope Francis)

In St. Paul’s words, “We live for the Lord and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” And our Lord never stops searching for us no matter how much we have struggled in our life. Our readings today speak to us of hope, mercy and God’s great love for us. This is something the scribes and Pharisees never seem to understand. The question is do we?

Have a great Thursday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God, we are often so afraid to open our clenched fists! If we do who will we be when if we have nothing left to hold on to? Who will we be when we stand before you with empty hands? Please help us to gradually open my hands and to discover that we are not what we own, but what you want to give us. Amen!  (Adapted from a prayer by Henri J.M. Nouwen)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “Shift from thinking to feeling–feel yourself accomplishing your goal. Take that feeling out of your head and put it into your heart. Embrace it as the reality.” (Erin Taylor) So to in the spiritual life – Don’t just think God, feel God today. Put God in your heart!

Daily Blessing: Happy Thursday everyone! I hope today has started off well for you and that so far your day has been rich in God’s presence. It is hard for me to tell if it is going to be as nice day yet as it is still dark outside but I am hoping will have a sunny drive back to New York.

It is an early morning for me as I will be stopping by the men’s prayer group who are having breakfast together this morning beginning at 6:15 am and then I will get ready to celebrate the St. Bartholomew School mass this morning at 8:15 am after which I will be getting on the road for the long drive back to New York. Our mission ended last night with a wonderful, spirit filled faith filled mass. I am truly grateful to the parish for inviting me to celebrate mission with them. I would ask you one last day to offer a prayer for the faith community of St. Bartholomew my they continue their rich tradition long into the future. If you could also say a little prayer for their preacher who will be on the road today!

Loving God, bless my family, my friends and all your faithful people so that they will always live your truth; express your love by their life; share your passion by their enthusiasm; take action with your grace; walk by faith; dance and sing to the gift of your spirit and embrace your unimaginable blessings. Help them make today worth remembering because they know that you created them out of love. Have a great day everyone! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul