Just a note to everyone out there in the digital world - If you or your parish are looking for someone to celebrate a Parish Mission or Retreat I have a lot of dates open this coming winter, spring or summer 2017-2018. My mission are usually three days and evening long. I begin by preaching all the masses the weekend before and then celebrate the mission or retreat Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I am open to shorter or longer missions or retreats.
In Advent and Lent I have these weeks open Advent 2017 - Dec. 2-6, 2017 Lent 2018 - Feb. 24-28, 2018 I also have a number of weeks open before Lent in January and early February along with weeks in the Easter Season. If you want to look ahead there is always the Summer and Fall of 2018 and the whole year 2019. So again, if you know a parish looking for a mission or retreat preacher please direct them to my web site for contract information or copy the information below: Fr. Paul R Fagan, C.P. Passionist Communications/ Passionist Preaching Ministry Office: P.O.Box 111, Rye Brook, New York 10573 Home: 190 Mount Tom Road, Pelham, New York 10803 Phone: 914-738-3344 Office or 347-920-0008 Cell Emails: preachermancp@cs.com or frpaul@passionists.org or PFagan@cpprov.org Web Site: www.preacherman.org Thanks...Fr. Paul
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Today’s Thoughts: In Luke’s Gospel today, we experience several of the Beatitudes and we are encouraged to feel the “blessings” that come with our poverty and reliance on God. If we feel content and complete with all our earthly wealth and success how can we improve our dependence and reliance on God? How does one strengthen and enrich a relationship if there is no need for the other person in our life? If one is so independent, as to not need another person’s help, council, ideas, or support, how does a non-relationship with another enrich us?
Our Gospel today is suggesting that, if we “hunger” or “weep,” it implies a need for others and a need for God, in order to experience a fulfilling life, to give us direction and to lead us to appreciate our need for others and our need for God. When we experience poverty, sorrow, hunger or insults, and find that we can overcome these struggles in life, through our dependence on God, we then will find true joy, appreciation and satisfaction in life. Have a great Wednesday everyone! "Today we cannot be satisfied simply with being aware of the problems faced by many of our brothers and sisters. It is not enough to offer broad reflections or engage in endless discussion, constantly repeating things everyone knows. We need to 'de-naturalize' extreme poverty, to stop seeing it as a statistic rather than a reality. Why? Because poverty has a face! It has the face of a child; it has the face of a family; it has the face of people, young and old. It has the face of widespread unemployment and lack of opportunity. It has the face of forced migrations, and of empty or destroyed homes." (Pope Francis)
Today’s Thoughts: “Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.” (Mother Teresa)
Jesus spends the night in prayer. Jesus places himself in the Father’s hands, at the Father’s disposition and listens to the Father’s voice in the depth of his own heart and look at what happens. Twelve close friends are gathered and people from everywhere are healed! In the Gospel today (Luke 6:12-19), Jesus shows us the power of prayer. It is not just a prayer of asking for help, though I am sure Jesus asked the Father for help from time to time. For Jesus and for us prayer is the placing of oneself in the hands of God. Yes, prayer is a conversation with God but prayer is often more listening then speaking. Jesus prayed often and not only when he faced major events in life. Jesus throughout the Gospel takes time for prayer. He takes time to hear the Father’s voice in his heart so that graced things could happen on his journey through life. So today let’s not forget that prayer needs to be a part of our lives. Let’s take at least a little time to put ourselves in God’s loving hands and hear God’s voice in our hearts. Let’s put ourselves at the disposal of God. The outcome for us just might be more good friends and healing for life’s struggles! Remember nothing is impossible with God. “Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine.” (Kathleen Norris) Have a great Tuesday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than destroy it?” (Luke 6:9) This is perhaps an important question for us to consider today as a nation and as a world. What are we about? Doing good, saving life or doing evil and destroying life? Some might say it is all in how you look at it.
Yet in the Gospel today that is exactly what Jesus is getting at. How do you look at life? Do you look at life with an open mind or a closed mind? Do you look at life through the lens of possibilities or through the lens of only one possibility? The scribes and Pharisees had only one lens through which they looked at life, the law. They could see no other possibilities. I have always admired people who walk into a situation open to seeing whatever the possibilities are. They might have their opinion but they are also open to what others say and do. They have their own lenses yet they can see other perspectives. Would that we all could see and live life this way! The scribes and Pharisees only looked through one lens. Jesus was open to all possibilities especially when the possibilities meant life. We pray today that we too with the grace of God will always be open to the possibilities that produce life. Have a great Monday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: Sorry for my late posting today but it was a very late night and a very early morning. You might say my brain is in zombie mode today… Question: Do zombies have brains? Answer: I am not sure. I am the only zombie that I know and I pretty much don’t have a brain all the time! So those of you waiting for answers might just be out of luck today…
On to the important things of life my thoughts… Today’s word for our Sunday readings might be forgiveness or reconciliation or compassion or even responsibility. After all God laid a pretty good guilt trip on Ezekiel today in the first reading. However, my word for the day is family, gathering, assembly or community or church. Take your pick. How so you might ask? Well, I think what Jesus, what the Prophet Ezekiel, and what St. Paul are getting at today is that we cannot make this faith journey alone. The assembly, the community, the church is very necessary, profoundly important. In the first reading, yes, God seems to muster up some pretty good guilt. It is the leader of the assembly who first and foremost needs to be faithful. If he or she is not the consequences not only rest with the community but all with the leader. If Ezekiel the prophet, the leader, does not get the Word out. If the assembly doesn’t repent, live faithfully then it is on him. However, if Ezekiel is faith and the assembly is not faithful it is on them. St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans reminds us what being a family, an assembly, a community, a church is all about the commandment of Love. Love of God, love of neighbor trumps, (sorry), surpasses all other commandments. Love of neighbor is profoundly important and is necessary for the life of a family, an assembly, a community, a church. And this is where Jesus comes in. Living within a family, an assembly, a community of faith, a church isn’t easy. Let’s face it, where two or three are gathered, yes Jesus is present but so are disagreements, differing opinions, conflicts, hurts and judgmentalness. Jesus today lays out a roadmap for how to live with others. He presents to us various levels of interaction or you might say, various levels of intervention to solve the differing opinion, conflicts, arguments that arise within any family, assembly and community of faith. The challenge is always making this roadmap work – not easy! For me on of the interesting lines in the Gospel is – “If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentle or tax collector. One scripture scholar I read this week said that he thinks Matthew had a smile on his face when he wrote this line because how did Jesus teach us to deal with Gentles and tax collectors? With compassion, mercy, forgiveness and love! My friends as a family, an assembly, a community of faith, as a church we cannot get away from it. The primary virtue by which we need to live is love! As St. Paul says elsewhere in his writings “love is the greatest.” To not love, to not forgive, to not have mercy places the onus on us just like it did for Ezekiel. We are the prophets of our day. It is difficult and sometimes downright impossible yet repeatedly we are called to love and forgive. Jesus give us ways, steps but it isn’t easy! “Again, amen, I say to you if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” Remember when we gather together as family, as assembly, as community, as church to pray we are asked to pray “forgive us our trespasses and we forgive those who trespass against us! Perhaps that is why our prayers don’t often seem answered because it always comes down to love and forgiveness! Have a great rest of your Sunday afternoon and evening everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Today's gospel story is an illustration of what happens when we pay attention to accidentals rather than the essentials. The Pharisees profess to not violating a single part of the law, but they are lacking in the heart of the spirit of what the law is there to support. They judge but are lacking in compassion and mercy.
Jesus asks us to be merciful. He is not looking beyond the law and tradition. Jesus' whole life and ministry was an example of how to respond to sin. The religious leadership, some of whom we meet in the Gospel today, were upset because Jesus often spent time eating and drinking with sinners. They were angry because Jesus enjoyed the presence of sinners. The scribes and Pharisees argued that Jesus should shun sinners and that his compassion for them seemed to condone their life styles. These religious leaders didn't seem to understand that love heals; that love forgives and that love builds a community of faith, hope and love. Pope Francis constantly calls us to be a community that offers mercy and forgiveness. He asks us to build bridges rather than walls, because this is what Jesus has taught us through his words and deeds. We might think that following the letter of the law defines a good religious person yet paying attention to the accidentals does not mean that we have invested in the essentials. Pope Francis asks us to hear Jesus' message that being a good religious means people who are merciful and compassionate. Pope Francis, like Jesus, reminds us that mercy proclaims the presence of God. Being merciful shares the good news of God's mercy. It helps us to lives out our faith and become a friend of God. Our acts of mercy help to make God present to the world. As we journey through this day let us give thanks for the mercy and love of God who has reconciled each of us, and remains our help and sustains our lives. Let us share God’s love and mercy, freely, generously and with compassion. Have a great Saturday everyone! Do It Anyway… People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway. (Credited to St. Teresa of Calcutta) Today’s Thoughts: As we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of Mary we are reminded in the Gospel (Matthew 1: 1-16, 18-23), that Mary, Joseph and Jesus are part of the great human family. A human family made up of saints and sinners and everything in between. It might seem tedious to read the long list of names at the beginning of the Gospel many of whom we know nothing about. As I began my ministry many years ago I would get so nervous when the genealogy of Matthew or Luke would appear as the Gospel. However, over the years I have become comfortable with them and now I even look forward to proclaiming either genealogy. I guess I have grown familiar with the cast of characters and what they remind me of concerning my faith.
Isn’t that what life is about – remembering the stories of life, honoring those stories and growing accustom to life. Seeing people and things differently, telling the stories that remind us of who we are and from where we have come. Remembering the characters good and bad that have made up our lives and molded us into the people we are today. Today we remember Mary’s birth into this world. We remember Joseph’s “yes” to God that kept the story going. We remember two faith filled people who celebrated and honored the gift of family and made it possible for all of us to be people of faith today. When we read or hear the genealogy of Christ whether from Matthew or Luke we are reminded that even though Jesus is God, he is also human, also part of this great human family and the characters, the women and men, who believed, who struggled, said yes and sometimes no, who embraced a relationship with God and sometimes didn’t, who lived life making it possible for Jesus to come into this world to embrace us with his love. Here’s to the characters in all of our lives. Here’s to the characters of the human family. Here’s to Mary as we remember her birthday. Here’s to Joseph and Mary the central characters of our story today who said “yes” that we might celebrate Jesus the Christ! Have a great Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” I am not sure how many times I have uttered these words in my own mind over the last 36 plus years. It seemed very simple 37 years ago, I got rid of most of my possessions and packed up what was left in my little orange Chevy Vega and headed east from St. Louis to Philadelphia to begin my journey into religious life and priesthood. At the time it seemed freeing, liberating. Yet not long after arriving in Philadelphia did the doubts and struggles started, the challenges of letting go of people, possessions and a way of life.
And to make matters more challenging throughout these 37 plus years there have been amazing moments when I have paused and said, “Why am I here? Depart from me, Lord, I don’t deserve this, I am a sinful man!” It is the ebb and flow of life that makes who I am, who any person of faith is a challenge. One moment we are in the midst of everyday life, doing what is expected, doing what we always do and then God seems to step in, in a profound way and we feel humbled, we feel undeserving. I had one of those moments two summers when I was the sitter for my three grand nieces, who at the time were, ages 9, 5 and 1 and I had responsibility for them for about 30 hours. Encountering the gift of life, of creation, the gift of love and the gift of family that these three little women offered me was a humbling experience. The 30 hours with them was a challenging and at times a struggling experience for someone like me who usually only experience this kind of love and family life from a distance. But then you get the opportunity to be with three wonderful little women and you recognize the profound presence of God just like Peter did. And you think to yourself “I don’t deserve this, I am a sinful man!” However even though undeserving like Peter and the rest of the crew on the seashore that day each morning I rise and follow Jesus once again. If you happened to encounter God in a profound way today and have that feeling that you don’t deserve it remember you are in good company! Have a great Thursday everyone… |
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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