Daily Thoughts - 02/20/2016

Daily Thoughts: "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you..." Probably some of the hardest words of the Gospel to put into practice. Perhaps on an intellectual level some of us might understand them. Maybe when we hear them proclaimed at mass we might give them some thought. However, when it comes to living, the vast majority of the time, these words do not find their way into how we look at life.

Enemies are not people to invest love in. People who persecute us do not find their way into our prayers. Most of the time these days we trash them on Facebook or Twitter, we gossip about them and find any way we can to discredit them, to demonize them. The twenty-four-hour news stations like FOX, MSNBC and the like will give you all the ammunition that you need! Living Jesus' words is leaving one's self open to all kinds of bad things. It reflects weakness in a world built on strength, power and being number one. We can point to many examples were others tried to be nice, tried to follow Jesus' advice and were persecuted, hurt, overrun, sent into slavery, exiled, lost all they had and end up worse than they started off. We can point to wars and conflicts that escalated into world problems because people didn't act with strength, force and might.

Living by Jesus' words seems to make us vulnerable and weak in the eyes of the people around us and the eyes of the world and to be honest with you I cannot dispute it. However, if we read a little further in the Gospel we might say in some ways Jesus is not talking about world problems and issues between nations or complex situations. Jesus is talking about our daily lives, greeting people, caring about people around us, treating people with honor and respect as we encounter them in the living of life.

Perhaps the point that Jesus is getting at is if we do the little things well, if we respect, honor and care about people in our one on one encounters. If we see a person who has hurt us or who does not value our point of view, our beliefs with love and respect and hold them in prayer, then perhaps our world problems would not be such a challenge. In other words, if we live the words of Jesus in our everyday lives then our world might have the chance of being a better place. If we do the little things with faith the big things might be easier to overcome!

Have a blessed Saturday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God, help us to live by your words. Guide us in the way of compassion, respect, caring, forgiving and love. Keep us focused on Jesus' way of disarming the evil in our life. Do not let us give in to the world’s view of power, might and right. Grace us so we can forgive when forgiveness is needed. Grace us with the humility to seek forgiveness when we have hurt others. Renew in us the Spirit of your love so that we might see today as the acceptable time to live by your words! Amen!

A Runner's Thoughts: Let us today run in the present moment, not from something and not to something. Let's strive for a grace-filled as well as a graceful run. Do not run for time but run for form, run for grace, run for God!

Daily Blessing: Saturday greetings and blessings to all! I hope you had a restful night, one that has allowed you to rise refreshed and ready to begin a new day.

I find myself getting ready this morning to head up to Levittown, NY later today to begin a mission at St. Bernard’s Parish. Once again I ask for your prayers, prayers for the community of faith at St. Bernard’s Parish and for the preacher who will be leading them in this time of mission. For those in the area the mission will be Sunday thru Wednesday at 7:30 pm. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday there will also be a morning session after the 8 am mass. If you are in the area come and join us!

My prayer of blessing on this Saturday is that your love may more and more abound both in understanding and wealth of experience and that through the blessings of God love and mercy you will always value the things that really matter. May God blessing us all with the hope and joy of the Gospel this day and always! Remember to give God a little time this weekend. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 02/19/2016

Daily Thoughts: “The Church which “goes forth” is a community of missionary disciples who take the first step, who are involved and supportive, who bear fruit and rejoice. An evangelizing community knows that the Lord has taken the initiative, he has loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19), and therefore we can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast. Such a community has an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of its own experience of the power of the Father’s infinite mercy. Let us try a little harder to take the first step and to become involved. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. The Lord gets involved and he involves his own, as he kneels to wash their feet. He tells his disciples: “You will be blessed if you do this”” (Pope Francis – Evangelii Gaudium – The Joy of the Gospel)

Pope Francis words today might not seem like they touch on our readings but they do. Pope Francis challenges us to be people of the world, to be people who get down and dirty with those around us. We are to be people of mercy and compassion. We are to be people who find the good in others even if they have done us wrong. We are to be people who bring joy to the world.

Sometimes this can be a difficult task. When others hurt us our natural response is to keep them at a distance, to wait for their apology, to seek justice, to wait for repayment, to hold on to the hurt. However, Jesus challenges us to be people who seek reconciliation, who offer forgiveness, who move beyond the hurt, who are people of service and joy.

In today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:20-26) Jesus teaches us about sin. He does not talk about mortal sin and venial sin. Jesus just talks about sin. The things we do, don’t do, the things we say or don’t say that hurt our relationship with God. Sin as Jesus speaks about it is not hierarchical it is on a continuum, anger at one end, killing someone at the other. If we do not deal with our anger, we are headed down the wrong road. So in the Gospel today Jesus asks us to look at all our faults, our failings, our struggles with others whether they are small or great. He asks us to seek forgiveness and to be compassionate so that we remain on the right road.

In other words, we are to reach out to others, to serve others, to bring the gift of God’s joy to others. And if we live life this way we will be blessed!

Have a blessed Friday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Good Jesus, the author and encourager of peace, love and goodwill, soften our hard and steely hearts, and warm our frozen and icy hearts, so that we may wish well to one another today and that we may be true disciples and friends of Jesus. Give us the grace even now to begin to reveal that heavenly life, where there is no hatred but rather peace and love everywhere. Amen! (Adapted from a prayer by Juan Luis (Ludovicus) Vives)

A Runner's Thoughts: “We run to undo the damage we've done to body and spirit. We run to find some part of ourselves yet undiscovered.” (John Bingham)

With this in mind let us run no matter what circumstances we encounter. There are lessons to be learned from running in various emotional states, just as there are when running in different environmental settings. Let's not shy away from running in an unaccustomed state of mind or an unusual situation. Opportunities for encountering God often are found in the unfamiliar.

Daily Blessing: Friday greetings and blessings to all! I hope you will have a wonderful end to the work week that it will lead you into a relaxing and restful weekend.

I head out this morning to the Wartburg Home for mass at 11 am and then I will spend the rest of the day getting ready to head out tomorrow to St. Bernard’s Parish in Levittown, NY where I will begin a mission on Saturday evening. It is a beautiful sunny day here in Pelham but a cold one. It is nice to at least see the sun it makes the cold a little easier to deal with.

I pray for God’s blessing on all of you today that in some way you will have a day graced with the wonderful spirit of God that you will be blessed with the richness of God’s presence in your life in some way. May your day be blessed with successful travel, wonderful interaction with people, quite refreshing moments, nourishment that energizes you and moments that remind you of God’s love and joy! Be well everyone and if you can take some time to enjoy life joyful way! Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 02/18/2016

Daily Thoughts: "Do to others whatever you would have them do to you," advice given by Jesus to his disciples, advice given to us today. What a different world it would be if we just followed this simple wisdom. I do not think there is a person among us who does not want good things to happen to them. Who does not want to be treated with respect and dignity? Who does not want to be valued for who they are? It is a basic human emotion, feeling and need. We want to be accepted, we want to be loved.

Yet over and over a scene is played out in our world today that runs counter to the wisdom Jesus gives us in the Gospel today. Just think of how many times and how many different ways each day we hear about, read about and even witness people disrespecting, belittling, devaluing, making fun of and hurting others, with words, actions, or in actions. Just think of all we endured leading up to Election Day and since. Debates and millions of ads that attack the other candidates. We rarely heard about how good and well qualified somebody would be for an office.  We always seem to heard how bad the other person was!

Just take a trip some time online through Facebook, Twitter or one of the other social media sights. Reading the comments at the bottom of some article or news stories post on the internet and you will encounter, hate, bigotry and profound disrespect. We seem to be about tearing down not building up. If we take Jesus' words at face value it would seem we all want to be disrespected, dishonored and devalued because that is the way we seem to treat others.

I think we need to remember that we value life because each of us, all of us, are born in the image and likeness of God. There is good in all of us. Perhaps we first need to find that goodness in ourselves and allow our words, our actions to originate from that goodness.

In the first reading Queen Esther prays for God's help. In the Gospel Jesus tells us to ask for God help. Today I am praying, I am asking God to help us see and concentrate on the goodness, the image and likeness of God within us, so that we may see it in others and continue the work of the prophets of old in making this world a better place. Making it a world of respect, reverence and love!

Have a blessed Thursday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Gift us O God, with a spirit that always contemplates what is right, what is good, what is worthy, what is decent, what is honorable, what is of value, the goodness, within ourselves and others. Help us to treat all we meet in the same way we want to be treated. Grace us with patience when we are not. Enliven us with trust in you so that we will always have the strength to ask, seek and knock. Knowing that if we do we will always be given, we will always find and the door will always be open! Amen!

A Runner's Thoughts: Let us run today with a spirit of gratefulness. Before beginning our run, let's declare our intention to look upon all we encounter with the freshness of the unexpected. It has been said that "surprise leads us on the path of gratefulness." So let us run with a sense of miraculous expectation and allow feelings of gratitude for the extraordinary and the ordinary to flow through our being!  (Adapted from Roger Joslin)

Daily Blessing: Thursday greetings and blessings to everyone! We finished the mission last night in Hamilton, NJ at St. Raphael/Holy Angels Parish in a wonderful way. Again a great spirit and I now take that spirit with me as I ready myself to head out on Saturday for my next mission in Levittown, NY.

I will be off to the Wartburg Home for mass at 11 am today and then on to spiritual direction and I little workout at the gym. I hope your week is going well and perhaps coming to an end in a good way so that you can enjoy the weekend ahead. For all those not having a good week, I am asking God for a special bless upon you today that things will turn around and that today will be a truly blessed day for you.

I pray today for God's blessing upon all of us, that the richness of God’s presence will touch our lives in many ways so that we can live to fullness of life in all we do and with all we meet. Remember within you is a treasure – the treasure of God’s presence, trust yourself, find the goodness in yourself and live today with a joy filled heart! May God bless the gift that you are and everyone you meet! Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 02/17/2016

Daily Thoughts: Recognizing and responding to God seems to be the tread that connects out two readings today. In the first reading from the Book of Jonah, Jonah is finally convinced by God to go to Nineveh and preach his message. Before Jonah gets half way through the city the people begin to repent. They proclaim a fast and put on sackcloth. As the word of God's message gets to the king, he puts on sackcloth and sits in ashes. In other words, much to Jonah's surprise the people hear God's word and respond to it right away. There is no debate, no bargaining, no resistance, the people hear the word of God and repent!

In the Gospel Jesus uses the example of Jonah to make his point to the people he is preaching to. His point is that God is in their midst but they are missing this gift. Other people, people you would not expect, people outside the faith community hear the word of God and respond but people in the faith community do not. They want signs and yet God in right in their midst.

Recognizing and responding to God, that is always the challenge. It is certainly the challenge for us today. How many times is God present in our lives and we fail to recognize him? How many times does God speak to us and we fail to hear or listen?

God is profoundly compassionate and forgiving but we have to recognize him, we have to hear and respond. This was the biggest problem for the religious leaders of Jesus' time, God was right in their midst and they did not recognize him; they did not hear and respond to him. Let us not make the same mistake. Today let us be open and aware to the many ways God enters into our lives and invites us into his mercy and love!

Have a blessed Wednesday everyone!

Daily Prayer: O God, look kindly on us today. Help us to recognize you in the many ways you will be part of our life today. Enable us to hear your word and respond to it with energy and enthusiasm. Grace us with humble and contrite hearts open to your presence and word. Fill us with your hope so that we may live always in your love! Amen!

A Runner's Thoughts: Life like running contains elements of challenge, difficulty, and pain...life like running hurts, it wounds, it calls on us to rise above conditions that seem beyond what we are capable of doing...life like running is a thing worth living and doing not just because of the future rewards, but because of how it feeds our bodies and minds and souls in the present and makes us aware of God's presence.

Daily Blessing: Wednesday greetings and blessings to all! I hope you will all have a great day wherever you are and in whatever you will be doing. We will be bringing the mission to a close here at St. Raphael/Holy Angels Parish in Hamilton, NJ today. It has been a spirit filled three days and last night because of the change in weather we had a much larger gathering. Again I ask your prayers for this final day of mission, for the faith community and the preacher.

It was nice waking up to warmer temperatures yesterday. Even though it rained most of the day it was still a welcome relief to the bitter cold. Today looks to be a little colder than yesterday but nothing like last weekend. We might even get to see a little sun today though I cannot tell at this moment because it is still dark out.

I pray that God will bless us with the richness of his grace so that we can navigate through this Wednesday of the First Week of Lent. May we all be blessed with the gift of God’s loving presence, a presence we will find in our encounters with others, in our travels and journeys, in our moments of quiet and within ourselves! Blessings upon all today. Have a great day everyone and know you are in my prayers! Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul