Today’s Thoughts: Each time I encounter today’s Gospel, Jesus teaching the disciples to pray the Our Father I can feel the emotions well up within me. For you see I have a special memory that centers on this prayer. The Our Father was one of the last prayers I prayed with my father before he died 37 and a half years ago. It was a December night in 1982, I was in my father’s hospital room late that night and as I was about to leave he asked me to pray with him. I was more than happy to do so, and I asked him what prayer he wanted to pray and he said, “The Our Father.”
I began to say the words and notice that my dad was not praying so I stopped and asked what was wrong. Dad said, “I don’t remember the words.” His illness had begun to affect his mind. So, I said, “No problem” and suggested that I say a few words of the prayer and that he repeat them after me. Do you know how hard it is to say the Our Father when you have to stop and think about what you are saying? Well, we got through the prayer and dad became very peaceful and for the most part remained peaceful over the last few weeks of his life. I have always remembered that moment. I would like to add little anecdote to this reflection on the “Our Father” and my own father. Four years after my father died, I was ordination to the priesthood on June 18th. The day after my ordination I was going to celebrate mass for my family who had come to New York for my ordination. It was a Thursday morning just like today. I awakened early that morning and wandered down the hall to the monastery and retreat house chapel to look at the readings and prepared for my very first mass with my family as a priest. When I got to the Gospel, I could not believe what I read. It was today’s Gospel from Matthew about Jesus teaching his disciples to pray, specifically to pray the Our Father. I put the book down and tears welled up in my eyes and I just sat there for about an hour unable to prepare any more. All I could do was remember that evening in the hospital four years earlier. I had wanted my dad to see me ordained but that was not to be but on that Thursday morning 33 years ago, I realized that he was with me and had been with me all along. I have never prayed the Our Father at mass, during the rosary or at any other time and not thought about that moment. What power there is in this simple prayer, what a gift this simple prayer is to all who pray it. I would invite you at some moment today to pause and slowly, deliberately pray the Our Father. Listen to the words. Realize what God offers you through the words of this simple prayer and what God asks of you. By the way thanks Dad! Have a great Thursday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: “God loves the cheerful giver.” This little sentence from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians seems to really sum up today’s Gospel (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18). Jesus challenges us to be humble people of prayer and service.
In the Gospel we hear those familiar phrases. “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” In each case the most important reward comes not in the world knowing that we do things but in God knowing. I think the grace and the challenge of the message of our Gospel is that what we have is a gift from God and in sharing this gift it becomes far more profound than we ever thought it could be. However, for this gift to have power, impact and abundance we need to share it – not for our glory and praise but for the glory and praise of God. Have a great Wednesday everyone! My thoughts today center around two quotes from Thomas Merton. The first is from his book, New Seeds of Contemplation and the second is from the book, Thoughts in Solitude. “Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.” (New Seeds of Contemplation) “Ask me not where I live or what I like to eat . . . Ask me what I am living for and what I think is keeping me from living fully that.” (Thoughts in Solitude) I picked these two quotes today because it is the 33rd Anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood and I am hoping that during my life especially over these last 33 years I have worked with God to find my identity and that I am truly living for Jesus even though at times my humanness, my struggles, my faults and failings get in the way of my friendship with God and in my service to others. As I celebrate this day, I turn to my good friend, St. Paul, for guidance and strength in the hope that I will always live every aspect of my life in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love of God as it is found in our Lord Jesus Christ. And that I will always excel in the gracious act of love that God has given to me by making sure my love for God and others is always genuine. As I celebrate today I pray for all who have touch my life especially during the last 33 years! Thank you all for helping me be the man of faith, the Passionist, the preacher and priest that I am today even in the midst of my faults and failings. May I always serve you out of God’s love. I leave you with a prayer today that have been a guiding light for me through out these last 33 years...Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will, all I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me. (A prayer by St. Ignatius Loyola) Today’s Thoughts: “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.” Perhaps this simple refrain often connected to Psalm 51 might be a 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 times 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 in 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! Today’s Thoughts: Given the negativity, anger, misinformation, violence of our world and the bad things that often seem to happen to good people living with a generous and willing heart is not always easy and sometimes is downright frustrating. At least it seems that way to 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 the 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 times 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 answers. Sure, I have often rationalized – I can’t 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 everyone! Today Thoughts: A numbers of years ago now I read a book entitled Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor. Barbara is one of my favorite authors, I love the way she writes and how she tells a story. In one of the chapter 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 and the story has stuck with me over the years 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 persons 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 Most Holy Trinity Sunday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’” Words of wisdom from today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:33-37). Yet, they are also words that at times are hard to live out. I know at times in my life I tried to hedge my bet, not wanting to commit because something better might come along. Not wanting to be honest because it felt like it might hurt someone. Not wanting to be straight forward because I might look bad.
Yet to be honest, straight forward, committed is what we are asked to be as people of faith by Jesus today. We are asked to let go of what others, what the world thinks and be faithful to ourselves, to others and to God. It might not be the easiest way, but it is God’s way. Jesus invites us to trust this new life. He teaches us to simply be honest, to be women and men of integrity. In Jesus, we come to know that trusting in God means letting go of the need to prove ourselves, whether by fancy oaths, cunning wordplay, or otherwise. Instead, we allow God to be our guiding light, always before us. Have a great Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I have always like the image that St. Paul uses in the first reading today (2Corinthians 4:7-15), “earthen vessels.” The St. Louis Jesuit song by the same name introduced me to the image many, many years ago, but it has been my ministry and the living of life that has made the image “earthen vessels” so important and lasting.
I remember during the Holy Year in honor of St. Paul I was reading an article by a scripture scholar who said the Paul was not very imaginative with his examples and images. Back then and now I would disagree with that scholar. When you look over Paul’s letters and consider the images he used in order to make his point often they are images that come out of everyday life. They are images that every person listening would be able to relate to. Paul spoke to the common person and in doing so tried to make his ideas, his words understandable through the images of everyday life. Everyone would have known what an earthen vessel was. They probably saw them and used them daily. A simple earthen container weathered by life with chips, cracks and flaws. Fragile pieces of pottery formed out of the clay of the earth by skilled and loving hands. Yet, Paul takes these simple objects of everyday life and turns them into wonderful images of our relationship with God. We are the earthen vessels, formed by the Great Potter’s hand out of the clay of the earth. We have our faults, failings, our chips and cracks but within us is a great treasure, the presence of God. What a hopeful and wonderful way to think of ourselves. Yes, we are fragile, yes we have our faults and failing, yes we are chipped and flawed but because of God’s presence, God’s grace, God’s love we are never alone. As Paul puts it, “We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” We carry within the dying of Jesus and the life of Jesus. We carry within us the profound love of God. May we carry within us, may we live, this special gift today in these earthen vessels to the glory of God. Have a great Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I ran across a quote by David Benner the author of Healing Emotional Wounds, “Forgiveness…is letting go – letting go of the anger, letting go of the right to retaliate, and letting go of the right to savour any of the emotional consequences of the hurt."
I have always reflected with people who were struggling with forgiveness that forgiveness is about letting go. It is about moving beyond the hurt. Yet often people think that forgiveness means forgetting. The wisdom in Brenner’s reflection is that he is not saying that we forget that we let go of the experience itself but that we let go of the human effects of being hurt that can often paralyze us. Perhaps said another way we need to let go so we can get beyond being a victim. I think this is what Jesus is getting at in the God today (Matthew 5:20-26). In order for the commandment of love, which we reflected on yesterday, to fully be part of our life we have to let go of the anger, retaliation and the victimization that being hurt can often bring about. Jesus talks about taking the high road. Jesus speaks about being the bigger person. Jesus teaches us the importance and power of love. However, there is one thing we always need to remember none of this is easy and sometimes taking the high road, being the bigger person, living by love can open us up to be hurt once again. It can also mean being rejected. The commandment of love requires that we be forgiving people, to seek forgiveness and to offer forgiveness whether it is successful or not. So, we pray for the strength and the grace to be people willing to seek forgiveness and be forgiving! Have a great Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: After reading today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:17-19) one might ask the question, “What law is Jesus speaking about?” At first glance we might be tempted to say that Jesus was about abolishing the law rather than fulfilling it. His life and ministry often seemed to challenge Jewish law rather than support it or fulfill it.
However, we might think about a conversation Jesus had with a scribe in Mark 12:28-34, the scribe asked Jesus, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus’ responds “to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself, these are the two great commandments.” Now, if we think of this conversation considering today’s Gospel then we might begin to have a real understanding of what law Jesus is talking about. All of law flows from these two great commandments, love of God and neighbor. Jesus’ life was about fulfilling these commandments, his life, his actions, his teaching and his ministry all centered on living a life in love of God and others. All that Jesus said and did was to bring fulfillment to the great law of love. Jesus showed us the way to fulfill the law, to change the world. Thus, the challenge for us in today’s Gospel is about how we live our life. Do we live our life to help bring fulfillment to the law of love? Do we live life loving God, others and ourselves? Have a great Wednesday 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
May 2023
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