Today’s Thoughts: God's Word in our life is like nothing else. As our first reading from Isaiah remains us it cannot return to God without nurturing, correcting, healing and inspiring us. God's Word is just like the rain, it refreshes us, it softens us up and helps life to grow within us and around us. God's Word is always going to grow our challenge is to allow it to grow within us.
The Our Father has always been one of my favorite prayers, perhaps because it probably was one of the first prayers I learned. It keeps me connected with the beginning of my life. It is also important to me because it is the last prayer I prayed with my father. It happened one night in the hospital not long before he died. I asked him if he wanted to pray and he said yes. We said the Our Father together and when we were finished a great feeling of loss came over me and I began to cry. My dad reached out and comforted me. I think the feeling of loss came from the fact that all that the Our Father speaks about my own father did for me in life and in praying it that night I recognized the loss that was about to take place in my life. The hopefulness of the Our Father is that God will never leave us. That each and every day we pray that simple pray, its promises, its challenges will always be taken care of by Our Father, God. Our daily bread will always be there. Forgiveness will always be there. The care, compassion and presence of God will always be there. We just have to trust and give life to the Word of God planted within us! As St. Augustine puts it, "If you run through the petitions of all holy prayers, I believe you will find nothing that is not contained in the Lord's Prayer." Have a blessed Tuesday everyone.
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Today’s Thoughts: While the section of the Book of Leviticus which is our first reading today seems to be a list of what to do and not do. Perhaps more importantly it is a reminder of how to be a Christian, a Catholic. These commands that Moses offers the people today are all about being a compassionate and loving person. Yes, they say what to do and not do, mostly what not to do, but if we think about not doing things like stealing, lying, swearing falsely, using profanity, making fun of people with disabilities, not acting dishonestly, not gossiping, not living with hate we can begin to see a life enriched by the presence of God. We can begin to see a life where we love our neighbor rather than hate our neighbor.
The advancement in technology and social media is a wonderful thing. It gives us information in an instant. It makes it possible to communicate across vast miles in a second. It brings people and experiences into our homes at the instants they happen. But it also enables us to be very non-Christian without even thinking about it. We can slander, berate, gossip, hurt and even hate others without even leaving our homes. It is like playing a video game and yet our words, our thoughts put down on Facebook, Twitter and all the other forms of social media can sometimes be profoundly hurtful and un-Christian. The first reading reminds us today that whether we are standing in front of a person or thousands of miles away we still have a responsibility to be a person of faith, a person of God and that means being loving not hateful and destructive. Jesus continues this theme in the Gospel with the very famous phrase, "whatever you did to one of the least brothers [or sisters] of mine, you did to me." Our words and actions whether in the midst of people or over the internet have consequences. If we are kind, loving and compassionate to whomever we encounter, wherever we encounter them we will be welcome in the Kingdom! Have a blessed Monday everyone! A Shout out to my nephew Paul on his birthday today! Many blessings Paul today and always. Have a great day!
Today’s Thoughts: “The Gospel offers us the chance to live life on a higher plane… [and in living the joy of the Gospel we] can offer believers, as well as the lukewarm and the non-practicing, new joy in the faith and fruitfulness in the work of evangelization. The heart of its message will always be the same: the God who revealed his immense love in the crucified and risen Christ.” (Pope Francis – Evangelii Gaudium – The Joy of the Gospel)
All the readings today, present us with a lens through which we can look at our journey of Lent and our journey of life. At mass, last Thursday, in the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy Moses set before the people, life and death, blessing and curse and asked them to choose. In our first reading, today from the Book of Genesis (Gen. 2:7-9, 3: 1-7) and in the Gospel (Matthew 4: 1-11) we experience Moses’ challenge lived out. Adan and Eve could choose life or death, blessing or curse. Jesus could choose life or death, blessing or curse. They each chose differently Adam and Eve choosing death, Jesus choosing life. In the middle of these two readings we have St. Paul reminding the Romans where they came from and where they are at this moment and in perhaps a different way St. Paul is putting before the Romans life and death, blessing and curse and asking them to choose life! The words of scripture today and the words of Pope Francis reminds us of the journey of life, a journey full of choices and decisions. Our decisions are oh so important, there are always about life and death, blessing and curse thus we must always look at the journey through the lens of faith because that can make all the difference. Life is not easy. The journey of life is full of temptations that challenge us with choices. Thus, it becomes profoundly important that we know the story and hold it our hearts. It is profoundly important that we live with joy even in the moments of struggle because it can make all the difference. Let us this Lent remember the story of God's love and choose wisely as we live life. Let us choose life, let us choose blessing. Have a blessed Sunday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: "Repairer of the breach...Restorer of ruined homesteads." Do we not have a picture of these titles in the Gospel today? Jesus invites Levi (Matthew) to follow him. Jesus invites a tax collector, a profession that made the people involved hateful to society. Yet, Jesus brings them into the community of faith. Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners and the religious leaders are taken back, Jesus brings those who are thought to be outside the community into the community. Yes, Jesus in the true "repairer of the breach and restorer of ruined homesteads.
However, these words and this story are not just about Jesus. Isaiah is speaking to us. Jesus is laying down an example for us. We are to be the repairers of the breach and restorers of the ruined homesteads. It is our job as members of the faith community to reach out and make those on the outside welcome within the community. It is our job to offer God’s mercy. So often we find within the faith community people who find it much easier to judge, to exclude, to criticize, to question the actions of people rather than to reach out and help, or be merciful. So often we find people within the faith community who create the breach and ruin the homesteads. As people of faith we live with the hope that the words of Isaiah are fulfilled in the person of Jesus but we also live with the challenge that as a disciple of Jesus we need to keep that hope alive. It has been said that through what God "does" we come to know who God "is." I think this can also be said about us. Through what we do for others as a people of faith, people will come to know who we are. As we continue this journey of Lent let us respond to Jesus' invitation to follow and give life, mercy and hope to life as repairers and restorers! Have a blessed Saturday everyone! A Few Thoughts From Pope Francis: “We have lost the wonder of walking together, we have lost the delight of dreaming together, so that this wealth, moved by hope, can take us forward; we need to walk together, we need to meet, and we need to dream. Do not lose the fascinating power of dreaming! Have the courage to dream! To dream, which is not the same as being sleepyheads, right?" (Pope Francis)
Remembering Mom and Dad Today: I would like to remember my mother and father today because today is the 74th Anniversary of their wedding. Back in the midst of World War II on March 3rd, 1943, they gather with just a few family and friends at the 7:30 am mass to express their love for each other. I am so grateful for their love as it brought my sister, brother and myself into the world. I know that they are celebrating in the gift of eternal love today! Thanks Mom and Dad and enjoy your day!
Today’s Thoughts: Who shall know the mind of God? No one really, God's thoughts are not our thoughts; God's ways are not our ways. I find the reading from Isaiah rather interesting today. It confirms for me something about my faith that I have struggled with for many years, the idea of doing things to be seen rather than doing things to make a difference.
In recent years, there has been a movement among some to kneel down or bow profoundly when receiving communion. There are those in high places who commend this practice and there are others who think all should be doing this. Now I truly believe that when we receive communion we should do it reverently. That said there are many ways to be reverent. If we were to apply Isaiah's words in the first reading to the action of receiving communion, they might sound something like this, "Do you call receiving communion in this way what I want? This rather, is the receiving communion that I want, I want you to receive and then take me into the world, help others, be the presence of God everywhere you go. In other words, as Isaiah reminds us God is not about rituals, God is about actions. How we receive communion is not the point – it is what we do once we receive the Lord. It is how we treat people that makes all the difference. God does not put a lot of importance in the "show" of things, in the "how" we do it, in the "what" we look like when doing it, in how many people see it, in the how reverent it is. God puts value in the way we live our faith, the way we interact with the world, the way we treat others, the way we bring God's compassion and mercy to the world. In today’s Gospel, the religious leaders are once again hung up on the rules, regulations and rituals but Jesus is about the living of life. Jesus is about recognizing God in our midst. Lent keeps reminding us that our thoughts are not God's thoughts and our ways are not God's way, yet we have the opportunity to recognize the presence of God in our life and change the way we think and the way we act so that we are about God and not ourselves. Have a great Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: "Today I have set before you, life and prosperity, death and doom...I have set before you, life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life..." Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy presents to the people, presents to us two roads for the taking and suggests to us that we choose the road of life.
Many years ago, as I was entering religious life my sister gave me a gift; I think it was for Christmas. It was a picture of a road sign, with an arrow pointing in two directions. It is the kind of sign that you find as a road comes to an end and as a driver you have to make a choice to go either right or left. Beneath the picture were the last three lines of Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken. "Two roads diverged in the woods, and I - I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." The picture has hung on my wall wherever I have lived over the years and has been an inspiration; it has been a reminder that the journey that I have traveled even though difficult at times has been the right journey. We might say that Moses is presenting to us two roads that diverge in the living of life. That we stand before those two roads that Moses calls Life and Death, blessing and curse, prosperity and doom. There are no signs just the choice of two roads, two ways to live life and we have to choose. Moses suggests that we choose life. In many ways, this suggestion is the road less traveled because it is not always comfortable, it is not always self-gratifying, it is not always easy and it is not always the road everyone else is traveling. The road of life can be filled with crosses, struggles, challenges, steep hills and selfless responses. The road of life has none of the allurements that you often find on the other road, power, wealth, instant gratification, self-importance, status and greatness in the eyes of the world. Yet, on the road of life you also do not find loneliness, judgmentalness, selfishness, greed, anger and death. On the road of life, you will find a community. It is a community ready to help, ready to walk with you. It is a community with a vision, a purpose beyond this life. It is a community of faith, of hope and of love. On the road of life faith will be strengthened, hope will be enlivened and love will be the order of the day! Yes, as we begin Lent we are presented with two roads diverging in front of us. There is a great crowd walking down the one, no so many on the other. Which road are we going to choose? My hope is that we choose the road less traveled, my hope is we choose life because that will make all the difference! Have a great Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Ash Wednesday 2017 – There is always a bit of tension went it comes to the scriptures at mass on Ash Wednesday, especially the Gospel. Jesus' words all point to a quiet, non-public, personal and hidden commitment to fasting, alms giving and prayer. Yet, right after the Gospel we parade up and get a large cross of ashes that we can wear throughout the day for everyone to see. It doesn't seem right but that is what we do!
I got a little clarity to my struggle with the readings today one Ash Wednesday when a Passionist who was celebrating this morning community mass articulated my struggle but then said perhaps it is important for us as a faith community to do this as we begin Lent. Ashes are a sign of unity, a sign of belonging and often for us that is important. I had never considered it that way. The ashes we Christians receive today connect us, they bring us together for a common purpose. Now we will each live out that common purpose differently, some more involved than others but we are together, we are connected! Now I still struggle with the fact that churches are full to overflowing today because people want the ashes and we will take them anyway we can get them, often wishing to avoid the mass or service, just give us the ashes. However, each and every Sunday when we have the opportunity to receive the Body and Blood of Christ often we are nowhere to be found and there is plenty of room in the church. I do not think I will ever understand how ashes became more important than Eucharist! Perhaps it is wearing the badge, the outward sign of ashes for all to see that makes us feel closer to God. I don't know! On to more positive thoughts..."Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation. [So] a clean heart create for me O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me," words from St. Paul and Psalm 51 that help us to begin this journey of Lent. St. Paul was one for always putting things in the moment not caught in the past or looking too far ahead, St. Paul was always in the here and now. Now was always the time, today this moment is what we should be concerned about. Somehow, some way God will be present to us today, God's Spirit will be alive for us today and we dare not miss it! The journey begins today and every day. The end of the journey is today and every day. The time is now! I have always found the Psalms to be a wonderful book of prayer and if I could make a suggestion for your journey of Lent go to the Psalms and use them as part of your prayer. In fact, I would suggest using Psalms 51 and 139. Alternate them during Lent spending some time with each. In Psalm 51 we seek forgiveness, mercy, joy, hope and God's love. In Psalm 139 we are reminded of God’s great love for us and the intimacy a relationship with God can bring. During Lent, we can live each day in the hope that now is the time and go to prayer in our inner room knowing that we are not perfect, that we struggle but that God is right there with us! Blessing on this Ash Wednesday to all. |
Fr. Paul R. Fagan, C.P. "Preacher on the Run"Just a few thoughts to help you on your journey through life...let me know from time to time what you think... Archives
April 2024
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