"How often we say: 'I must change, I can't go on like this … My life, on this path, will not bear fruit, it will be a useless life and I will not be happy'. How often these thoughts come to us. … And Jesus by our side, with His hand outstretched, says to us, 'Come, come to me. I will do the work: I will change your heart, I will change your life, I will make you happy.’ … Jesus is with us and invites us to change our life. It is He, with the Holy Spirit, Who sows in us this restlessness, to change our life and to become a little better.” (Pope Francis)
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Today’s Thoughts: Three years ago at this time I had just returned from a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Recently, I have thought a lot about that journey and how it changed my relationship with Mary. She was very present during my travels three years ago especially during my time in Lourdes. While some might wonder why we pray through Mary to Jesus or the Father, or the Holy Spirit, it became very evident to me while in Lourdes that Mary has played and continues to play a very important role in my relationship with God and in all our relationships with God. The richness of her life, her presence and her place in the Body of Christ, in the Church and in the living of everyday life is very important. She is a touch stone to the presence of God in our life. I am glad to celebrate the gift of her love for us today on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.
As we celebrate today I turn to some words by Benedict our Pope Emeritus in offering you a few thoughts for your consideration on your journey of life today… “Mary is a woman who loves. How could it be otherwise? As a believer who in faith thinks with God's thoughts and wills with God's will, she cannot fail to be a woman who loves. We sense this in her quiet gestures, as recounted by the infancy narratives in the Gospel. We see it in the delicacy with which she recognizes the need of the spouses at Cana and makes it known to Jesus. We see it in the humility with which she recedes into the background during Jesus' public life, knowing that the Son must establish a new family and that the Mother's hour will come only with the Cross, which will be Jesus' true hour (cf. John 2:4; 13:1). When the disciples flee, Mary will remain beneath the Cross (cf. John 19:25-27); later, at the hour of Pentecost, it will be they who gather around her as they wait for the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).” (Pope Benedict XVI) Tuesday blessings to all and Happy Feast of the Assumption of Mary. May the spirit of Mary enliven your journey of faith! Today’s Thoughts: “I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world. That, I think, is faith.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
The Gospel (Matt. 17:22-27) today for the most part is a confusing one, yet I think Bonhoeffer’s reflection on a life of faith touches the spirit of today’s Gospel. We are not exempt from life; it is part of who we are. Life asks us to participate and it is by faith in God that we find the way to participate, to live in this world. Have a great Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Often in talks that I have given the subject gets around to images of God. One of the points that I make is that to me the images of God in the Old Testament are the images of our childhood and the images of God in the New Testament are the images of our adulthood. Now, I know that this is a very simplistic statement and that there are many theologians and scripture scholars who would very empathically disagree with my statement. However, in a general way I think what I say about the Old and New Testaments is true.
As I see it the God we encounter in the Old Testament is a superhero. He creates out of nothing. He separates seas. He wins battles. He is a bigger than life God. While the God we encounter is the New Testament is Jesus and the many wonderful images that he shares with us – a Father, a Good Shepherd, a forgiver of sins and so on. Now with all of this said if we look at the images of God in our readings today – my theory is completely upside down! The superhero is from the New Testament and the intimate God is from the Old Testament. In our Gospel today, Jesus walks on water and in our reading from the First Book of Kings, God is a tiny whispering sound or in some translation the sound of silence. The point of our readings today is that no matter how we encounter God, whether as a superhero or in an intimate conversation God is always there for us. Jesus is there for Peter and the other disciples even though their faith is not the best and God is there for Elijah even though he is struggling with his faith too. If we are open to any kind of encounter with God we will always have the chance to walk way on the right path and stronger in our faith. Have a blessed Sunday everyone and don’t forget to give God a little time today because you never know when you will meet him along the way! Today’s Thoughts: Two things stand out for me in our readings today. The first comes from the Book of Deuteronomy (6:5) – “Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” The journey of faith is about going all in. Faith is not halfway. Faith is not the minimum. Faith is our whole, heart, soul and strength.
Now this way of living life is not easy. I believe as human being we are prone at time to do the minimum. What can we do to get by? What is the least we can do and still get to heaven? Take the commandment – Keep Holy the Lord’s Day. When that commandment was given to us it meant the whole day. Over the centuries we have reduced it and reduced it. Today, at times, some Catholics look to get to mass before the Gospel is read and hang around until communion begins. The minimum. However, I have never found that in print. Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy, Loving our Mother and Father, Loving God, and all the other commandments are about our whole heart, our whole soul and our whole strength as the Book of Deuteronomy tells us today. Faith is about going all in, loving with everything we have. In our Gospel today, we see what happens when we don’t apply the challenge of Deuteronomy. Jesus becomes exasperated with the people and his disciples because of their lack of faith. The disciples are still not all in. They are still hedging their bets with Jesus and thus they struggled driving out the demon from the young boy. Faith demands a commitment. We cannot be lukewarm, we cannot do just the minimum. Faith can be as small as a mustard seed but we need to be all in with our whole heart, our whole soul and all of our strength. Have a great Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: The disciples left behind rather normal lives, fishing, collecting taxes, among other things and they did it all in order to follow Jesus. As we here in Matthew’s Gospel today now comes the hard part. The kingdom that Jesus speaks about will not be established by might but by suffering and death. Jesus is not a political or military leader. His power is not to take things by force. His way is not the way of the world. It is to die to self. It is to let go of what the world think is important. It is to grab onto a relationship with God and not let go.
Following Jesus and dying to self, letting go, is not an easy task. The cross presents itself to us daily in many different ways. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once put it “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” So, we are called today and every day to find that place deep within each one of us, where God is calling us, through the paschal mystery, into a relationship of love – and it is that relationship that holds the promise of a joyful, rich, and never-ending life in the kingdom. Have a holy and blessed Friday everyone! Dear Friends in the Passion,
Sometime in the next few months I will be making a special announcement about a pilgrimage that I will be leading in 2020 to Oberammergau, Germany and The Passion Play. As you might know The Passion Play at Oberammergau is only put on every ten years. It is a magnificent production and a once in a lift time experience. I had the great privilege of taking my mother to see in the play in 2000 and then I led a pilgrimage in 2010. I am very much looking forward to experiencing The Passion Play again in 2020. Now I know that 2020 is three years away but The Passion Play is such a unique experience that preparation and bookings especially for groups have to begin far in advance. It is also an expensive journey so starting to save early makes it a little easier on people’s budgets. I do not have any particulars on the pilgrimage yet. I have just contact the tour company that I used the last time, NAWAS, and told them when I would like to go and the kind of pilgrimage I would like. The pilgrimage will probably be sometime between the end of June and Labor Day. They will get back to me with specifics when they have finalized their planning. My hope is that our pilgrimage will travel through Switzerland, Austria and Germany. It will probably be a 10 day trip. We will have mass every day and see a very beautiful part of the world, many historical places and of course The Passion Play in Oberammergau. I am excited about the journey so I am giving you this advanced notice. If you have traveled with me before you know that the place I go have important meaning to me especially in terms of my faith. As a Passionist taking people to see The Passion Play makes all the sense in the world. So if you would like to get on my information list send me an email with you name and address and I will make sure you get on my mailing list for the pilgrimage. When I get more information or when the brochures come out I will make sure you get one. Please tell your friends, your parish communities – get the word out some we can make this a fun and faith filled journey in 2020! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul Oberammergau – The Passion Play - 2020 Today’s Thoughts: “A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, and must empty ourselves. Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in his love than in your weakness.”
(St. Teresa of Calcutta) Today is the Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr, a Third Century saint. It is because of his feast that we have deviated from the daily readings from the Old Testament and Matthew’s Gospel. And I have called upon Mother Teresa again to give us a little focus. It is my feeling that St. Teresa of Calcutta give us another way of understanding our Gospel (John 12:24-26) today. The cost, the struggle, the giving of ourselves might seem like weakness but when lived in friendship with God it becomes the power of wonderful things. Let us believe in God’s love so that our weakness will become our strength! Have a great Thursday everyone. I know that it is always dangerous to take thoughts that are drifting around in my head and put them on paper or speak them but I feel called to be a little reckless today…
I have tried and been mostly successful in staying out of politics since last November’s election. The day after the election I posted something on Twitter and Facebook that spoke to me the morning after the election. It was what I felt but it got mixed reviews from my followers. At that point, I decided politics was not my world at least in terms of my reflections and musings and I have stuck to that self-imposed policy. However, with all the saber and sword rattling in the last few days I feel compelled to muse a little out loud... Over the last few weeks I have encountered several people who have begun to re-watch the television program The West Wing. They have made such comments about how well it was written and wouldn’t it be great if we found ourselves with a president and a government like that these days. With these comments and others my curiosity was stirred. I can remember watching The West Wing, when it first aired, (it was on from 1999 until 2006), but I would not have called myself a fan. It was interesting and I have always liked Martin Sheen but it was not part of my regular television viewing. However, looking for something that might keep me hopeful and positive I thought it might be worth revisiting myself. The other night as I struggled with one of my sleepless nights, I decided to watch a few episodes of The West Wing. One of the early episodes that I watched focused on the Syrians shooting down a US military plane with many civilians on broad who were on a medical aid mission. One of the people who died was a friend of President Bartlet. The President wanted to blow Syria off the face of the earth. He wanted to punish them with all the might of the United States. There were several scenes where he vents his anger at his staff and the Joint Chiefs as they tried to plot a response. He wanted vengeance disguised as justice and he was sure that God in on his side! In a very intense scene President Bartlet’s chief-of-staff Leo McGarry challenges the President to rethink his position. He said that the greatest nation in the world cannot just blow people up for the sake of vengeance or justice. We cannot become like those who use violence indiscriminately. Cooler heads prevail and President Bartlet learns a valuable lessen in the early years of his presidency. Yes, this is Hollywood, but with all the saber rattling and God empowering rhetoric that we have been exposed to these last few months. All the grandstanding on both sides wouldn’t it be nice if there was a Leo McGarry some where in the White House, somewhere in our country, our world, who would settle things down and remind us that the greatest nation does not let go of its greatness and lower itself to name calling, treats, violence and war. And to all the so called Christian Religious Leaders who somehow think God has empowered our President, our Country to be God’s Powerful Right Arm – remember vengeance if it takes place at all is God’s purview not ours. Perhaps what God is saying to our President and to us is what he said to Isaiah many years ago… “He [God] shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” Ah… that feels better! Peace in Christ’s Passion everyone…Fr. Pau "Among the many aspects of mercy, there is one which consists of feeling pity for those who are in need of love. Pity is a concept present in the Greek-Roman world, where however it indicated … above all the devotion due to the gods, then respect for children for their parents and in particular the elders. Today, however, we must be careful not to identify pity with pietism, which is quite widespread and is merely a superficial emotion that offends the dignity of the other. In the same way, pity must not be confused with the compassion we may feel for animals who live with us; at times one may indeed feel this sentiment towards animals yet remain indifferent to the suffering of our brothers [and sisters]." (Pope Francis)
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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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