Daily Thoughts - 06/17/2014

Daily Thoughts: “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.” Perhaps this simple response for today mass is the key to understanding and living out Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:43-48). To love one’s enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, we first must realize that we too are sinners; we too have hurt others and at time made life difficult for others.

There are no perfect people out there in the world, no one can claim perfection, thus if we wish mercy and forgiveness we need to be willing to offer it too. Now I am not saying it is easy, if it were Jesus would never have included it in his teaching and I would not be writing about it this morning. Living a life of faith is often difficult and always challenging.

Perhaps the key to making it work is prayer. If our first response to the challenge, to the difficulty, to the struggle is prayer rather than anger, resentment, and judgment then we have the chance to imperfectly live the Gospel message.

Today’s Gospel is not about excusing offensive acts or being lenient with people who hurt us. It is not about looking the other way and letting people just do what they want. Today’s Gospel is about how we trust is the presence of God as we live in the midst of an imperfect world. It is about how we react to people and situation that hurt us. Do we seek vengeance, do we expect to extract our pound of flesh or do we pause and through prayer place the person, the situation in God’s hands.

Prayer can be a way of offering another Christian love. It can be a way of seeking mercy and forgiveness and also offering mercy and forgiveness. Prayer is not going to make our world perfect but it can be a starting point for us becoming the people of faith that Jesus asks us to be today!

Have a great Tuesday everyone and don’t forget to make a joyful noise with your life today.

Daily Prayer: God of all hope, renew in us today the courage to live life to its fullest. Help us to especially stand for and live out the values that Jesus taught us, humility, courage, compassion, mercy, forgiveness and love. Grace us with your wisdom to know how to best live our life in you. When opposition comes our way help us to not give in to fear and cowardice, help us not to strike back with violence and anger, help us not to react out of pride and judgment. Help us to be humble, prayerful people of faith, humble people alive with hope and ready to offer your love. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: “Now bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible.”

(William Shakespeare)  “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)  Can’t these thoughts be found in how Jesus is asking us to live? – Have a great day!

Daily Blessing: Tuesday blessing to all! I hope your morning is starting well and that this will be a good day for you in every way.

In a few hours I will begin the long trek to the Midwest. My first destination is the Chicago area to visit family and then it will be on to Manitowoc, WI where I will be giving two sisters retreats beginning next Sunday. I will not be returning home until July 13^th so this will be a long stretch on the road. Please keep all those who will encounter me through my ministry over these next few week that they will find what they need and encounter through me the love of God. And if you could remember me in your prayers I would greatly appreciate it.

I hope you are finding these middle days of June which are leading us towards summer enlivening and life giving. My prayer of blessing today is that your day will be rich with God’s blessings upon your work, your travel, your encounters with others, upon those whom you love and upon you! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Daily Thoughts - 06/16/2014

Daily Thoughts: Living with a generous and willing heart is not always easy and sometimes is downright frustrating.  At least it always has been for me. I truly want to follow the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel (Matthew 5: 38-42), “Give to the one who asks of you and do not turn your back on the one who wants to borrow.” Yet, time and time again I struggle with Gospel way that Jesus outlines today.

At times I want justice or maybe more so revenge, yes I want an eye for an eye. I don’t like to get hit at all and I certainly don’t want to turn the other cheek. I am happy at time to go the extra mile but not always. You can have my jacket or coat as long as it is an old one and I have another. And it seems at times there are people on every street corner and subway stop if I give to everyone I will be broke within a day!

Yes, often I fail when it comes to Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel and that bothers me! How can I be a person of faith, how can I be a Christian, a Catholic and fall so short? Jesus’ words are haunting words today and I have no answer. Sure I have often rationalized – I can give to everyone; the money will surely be used for drugs or drink; they got what they deserved; somebody has to teach them a lesson; it’s too cold; I don’t have time; somebody else will help them; and on and on!

But Jesus doesn’t give conditions or excuses he just says offer no resistance, turn the other cheek, give your coat, go the extra mile and don’t turn your back! So I am still faced with my imperfection, I am still face with how to act and live. I have no intelligent answer, no sage wisdom of many years. All I can say is that it is perhaps good to pause and listen to or read Jesus’ words in Matthew’s Gospel today knowing that we are not perfect but also reminding ourselves that there is still much to learn, much to do. Perhaps, Jesus’ words make sure that we see the world around us and that we don’t close our eyes to it!

Have a great Monday afternoon everyone!

Daily Prayer: Loving God, we thank you for wanting to enter our lives. Help us to let go of the things we think are so important yet they always seem to stand in the way of your presence in our lives. Grace us with the strength to open the door of our hearts today, so that as we ask you to come in nothing will stand in the way of our love for you. We want you to make our hearts your home, today and always. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: As you run today try to make you run a God-centered run. In other words make your run a run in which you honor God through the voices of nature. Let yourself experience all the sounds of nature around you as you run; the wind, the trees, the leaves. Listen to the sounds of water if you run near a creek, river or the ocean.  Smell the scents of nature around you. Remember in the Psalms, the rivers clapped and the ocean roar in praise of God, so join in the chorus with your run. Look, purposefully, for signs of God’s creation, offering praise. Become one among the many voices of creation to give praise as you run today! (Adapted from Roger Joslin)

Daily Blessing: Happy Monday afternoon everyone! I hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed however you celebrated Father’s Day. Things are quiet here in Pelham these days. We have two less community members now with Fr. Robin and Fr. Enzo moving on the new ministries so the house is often quiet with the comings and goings of busy people.

I will be headed out on the road for a month beginning tomorrow as I make my way to the Midwest with Manitowoc, WI as my final destination by next Saturday. So I am enjoying my quiet time at home before busyness starts again.

We find ourselves moving toward the first day of summer later this week and the weather certainly has begun to feel like summer. I hope the weather by you is warm and sunny also.

I ask your prayers for my niece Sarah, my nephew Dominick and their “Little One” on the way. Sarah got a stomach virus yesterday and spent the night in the hospital. She will be released when she can keep some food down otherwise all seems well, but it is not the kind of thing you need to have happen a month before your first baby is due so some prayers for the anxious parents and the little one are in order for today! Thanks in advance for your prayers!

I pray this will be a good afternoon, evening and week for you wherever you are and whatever you are and will be doing. May you find some time to enjoy the gift of God’s creation and may whatever challenges you face be solved quickly and in a positive way. Enjoy your day and blessings to all! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul

Father's Day Thoughts - 06/15/2014

Father’s Day Thoughts:

I have always liked the following poem by Rudyard Kipling. I first learned it when I was in 8^th grade and I read it as part of my homily at my father’s funeral mass many years ago. Today on Father’s Day I offer it to you, read it and remember what your father has given you, taught you and how he has loved you whether you are a son or a daughter. If you are a father, read it and remember what you are about in helping make good daughters and sons. Being a father is a great gift with great responsibilities. We pray for and ask God to bless all fathers today that they will always share their gift and always make a difference in our lives. And we ask those fathers who have passed on to watch over us and guide us down the right road.

Happy Father’s Day…

IF.....

 IF you can keep your head when all about you

 Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

 If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

 But make allowance for their doubting too;

 If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

 Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

 Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

 And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

 If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

 If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

 And treat those two impostors just the same;

 If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

 Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

 Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

 And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

 And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

 And lose, and start again at your beginnings

 And never breathe a word about your loss;

 If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

 To serve your turn long after they are gone,

 And so hold on when there is nothing in you

 Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

 ' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

 if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

 If all men count with you, but none too much;

 If you can fill the unforgiving minute

 With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

 Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

 And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

(By Rudyard Kipling 1865–1936)

Happy Father's Day Dad! Thanks for the gift of life and all that you taught me over the years! Thanks for watching over me these last 34 years from your eternal home! I will love you always...Your Son, Paul Jr.

Holy Trinity Sunday - 06/15/2014

Daily Thoughts: A year or so ago I read a book entitled Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor. She is one of my favorite authors, I love the way she writes and how she tells a story. In the book Barbara tells a little anecdote about life as pastor/rector of her first parish in northern Georgia. After services one Trinity Sunday she found a miniature Three Musketeer Bar and a note on her car. They were from an eccentric woman who lived across the street from the church. The note read, “One for all and all for one, Happy Trinity Sunday.”

I could not help but laugh as I read the story again last night, it has stuck with me over the past year and I keep coming back to it. Taylor writes the story as she is talking about settling into her first parish as a pastor/rector. It wasn’t easy, there were challenges and struggles, but this story seemed to reflect an acceptance, a fitting in for her.

Perhaps that is what this feast of the Holy Trinity is all about. We celebrate the mystery of God as Trinity, three persons but one God. Just saying it seems odd. How can we have three persons but just one God? How can we talk about three individuals yet still only be talking about one God? In human language it is impossible yet that is what we believe. We celebrate the gift of three person so connect, so intimate, so focused that they are one. Believing means that we are part of that one, members of the relationship, accepted.

We believe in, we celebrate our God today who is all for one and one for all. Happy Trinity Sunday everyone!

Daily Prayer: Eternal God! A Trinity of persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, yet one in being, whose presence in our life we honor today. You are the beginning and end of all things and it is in and through you that we live and move and have the very breath of life. So today we come before you in body, mind and spirit to honor and thank you for the gift of your presence in our lives. What can we offer you, O God, that will reflect and give thanks for all that you have done for us? All we can do today is give thanks for your Trinity of Love, and serve you all the days of our lives. So let each of us bless the Lord, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our being and let all that is within us give God thanks this day and always. Amen!

A Runner’s Thoughts: Remember running in a different place every once in a while can bring with it a different set of experiences. Each new setting can provide an opportunity to practice our spiritual running by helping us to be aware of not only new things around us but also new things within us. Running in a new place stretches our ability to find God in our runs, in life and in ourselves!

Daily Blessing: Happy Father’s Day and blessings on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity to everyone! I hope you find yourself in the midst of a blessed Sunday and a relaxing Father’s Day. The sun is out here in Pelham this morning and it looks and feels like it is going to be a beautiful day!

I pray for God’s blessings upon all of you today and always. I hope you will be blessed especially this Father’s Day with the richness of family, friends, warmth, peace and rest. May God truly be with you and those you love, keeping you safe as you enjoy the gifts of creation and the memories of fathers who were a part of your life and the presence of fathers who are currently in your life. Remember to spend a little time with God today because after all, “One for all and all for one!” Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul