Daily Thoughts - 08/10/2016

Daily Thoughts: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:20) Perhaps said a little differently by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Where a people prays, there is the church; and where the church is; there is never loneliness.”

The focus of the Gospel today is church. It is a community gathered in God’s presence. In that presence we can seek help, we can deal with struggles, we can get to the truth. In that presence we can morn and celebrate. In that presence we are never alone.

While some might hear the word church and think building or institution, church is really people, Church is community. Church is the presence of God made visible by the gathering of two or three in God’s name!

Have a great Wednesday everyone.

Daily Prayer:

Living God, for this reason we come before you, from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its name. We pray that out of your glorious riches you will strengthen us with power through your Spirit in our inner most being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. And we pray that we, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.

Now to you, our God, who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to your power that is at work within us, to you, our God, be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Adapted from the words of St. Paul Letter to the Ephesians)

A Runner’s Thoughts: “Poetry, music, forests, oceans, solitude, [prayer]--they were what developed enormous spiritual strength. I came to realize that spirit, as much or more than physical conditioning, had to be stored up before a race.” (Herb Elliott) And we might add after “a race” and “in the living of life!”

Daily Blessing: Wednesday blessings and greetings to all! I hope your Wednesday is starting off well. It is a partly cloudy day at it start here in Pelham and I think there is a chance for rain in the forecast but the sun is trying peek through right now. It is also rather humid which will make running a little more of a chore later today.

I will be spending most of this day at my office in Rye Brook as I have a lot of paperwork to get out of the way before I head to Long Beach next week to fill in at St. Ignatius Martyr Parish. So I am hoping to put in a good long day behind the desk not what I enjoy doing but necessary.

I hope you will enjoy your day wherever you are and in whatever you are doing. And if things aren’t going so well today remember this, “every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person and a beautiful thing” (Mother Teresa). So just smile and share the gift you are. May God bless you with a day filled with much joy, grace and God’s unconditional love. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul