Today’s Thoughts: “No servant can serve two masters.” (Luke 16:13) No we cannot divide our focus when it comes to living life, when it comes to our faith. And so, offer the following reflection so that we might focus on what really matters today…
Celebrate each moment as it comes to you…with faith, trust and gratitude. Because all that happens in our life has God’s mark on it. Each day offer a simple fiat…It can be as simple as taking a breath, or the beat of our heart, but let it say thanks God! Seek God each day, not in some far-off place, not in the trappings of history but in the world around us. God is always right here, in this place, in our hearts. God is right here, where we stand, where we walk, where we run, where we sit, where we lie down, in everything we do. God is right here, in our family, in our friends, even in strangers we meet. God is in our workplace, our homes, our yards, our living rooms, our family rooms, our bed rooms. Because these are all places, altars where we offer and receive love and thankfully God is there! Celebrate life; celebrate life with gratitude and thankfulness today and always! Have a great Saturday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: Today we celebrate the feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. It is the Pope’s local parish church as bishop of Rome. It is considered “the mother and head of all churches of the city of Rome and the whole world.” It has with stood barbarian attacks, earthquakes and fire. It is a physical sign of the presence of God not only in buildings but throughout the world.
In our first reading from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12), we hear about the Israelites struggles in exile. It is the experience of lifelessness, it is the experience of earth where nothing will grow. It is the experience of being without their own land, their own homes, their own Temple. The prophet Ezekiel has this vision of the new Temple. It is a spring welling up, flows East, transforming the desolate land of the Arabah region (like a new garden of Eden), and it enters the Dead Sea, purifying it. This spring of water brings life and healing. In our Gospel today (John 2:13-22), we encounter the famous story of Jesus overturning tables, making a whip out of cords and driving out all those who are making his Father’s house a marketplace. The moneychangers and sellers, who became rich at the cost of the poor, are driven out. In answer to the religious leaders request for a sign, Jesus says: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” They do not understand him. His disciples, however, remember these words when Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. In our middle reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 3:9c-11, 16-17), St. Paul preaches the good news of Jesus and baptized them in Christ so that each could become God’s “building,” with God’s Spirit dwelling in them. Perhaps as we reflect on our readings today on feast of the Lateran Basilica, we might take the time to remember that Christ dwells in each one of us, that he gives us the courage to overcome our weaknesses and become holy temples of God. We might find ourselves parched, struggling, and lifeless at times, but with God’s grace flowing like a stream through us, we are challenged to give life to the presence of God wherever we go and to whomever we meet. Have a great Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Perhaps these three quotes help us understand our two parables this morning from Luke’s Gospel. Parables that speak to us of the mercy of God…
“The thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds. ... And you have to start from the ground up.” (Pope Francis) “A church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” (Abigail Van Buren) “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.” (Pope Francis) “God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy.” (Pope Francis) In St. Paul’s words, “But whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” St. Paul was lost and ultimately found by Christ. God never stops searching for us no matter how much we have struggled in our life. Our readings today speak to us of hope, mercy and God’s great love for us. This is something the scribes and Pharisees never seem to understand. The question is do we? Have a great Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In our first reading today from the letter of Paul to the Philippians, we find Paul writing from prison. His words are so personal and loving they could only be inspired by someone growing ever closer to our Lord. His connection to the Philippians is strong and feels like he is writing to family. I think we have all has this kind of experience when with a certain group of people, it feels like family. Perhaps at times within a faith community we feel like brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Paul writes about obedience, and his confinement, his words encourage his friends, his faith family to persevere. The one thing he says that often sticks with me is to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12) and I find this to be the theme that runs through today’s readings. It is good to recall the meaning of the word fear which was used to convey a deep level of respect. The phrase, fear and trembling are Old Testament terms meaning awe and seriousness. God has a plan and it is perfect, because while Paul was imprisoned, others felt the need to do for themselves, what they had let others do. Like them, we are called to spread the Gospel message with everything we think, say and do, holding firm to Christ’s teachings. In our Gospel from Luke today, Jesus uses many examples of getting prepared and planning. He’s calling us to follow Him. Just like Paul tells the Philippians, to work out their salvation, deliberately. Jesus says that no one would construct a tower without sitting down and calculating the cost to see if there was enough for completion. If you are not able to finish much above the foundation, you will be laughed at and ridiculed. The same holds true when planning our lives as we work towards the Kingdom. We are being called to follow Jesus so calculate, plan, be deliberate about your actions. If they don’t help us accomplish the goal, they might not be worth doing. We don’t want to run out of time and not have your tower built. On that day, with the crowds following, Jesus said to do whatever you have to do in order to follow him, even if you have to renounce your family. He asks us to carry our own cross; we all have one, some heavier than others. Jesus asks us to renounce our possessions, so that we can hold on to him and be his disciple. The less meaning our possessions have, the more we’ll be able to focus on our friendship with the Lord. Have a blessed Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: “At the name of Jesus every knee must bend, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim to the Glory of God the Father, that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Passionists pray this prayer at least twice every day. It is the prayer we pray to begin every communal gathering of prayer. It is a prayer that brings us together as a community and focuses our life of prayer.
Thomas Merton captures the essence of this prayer from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians when he says, “This act of total surrender is not merely a fantastic intellectual and mystical gamble; it is something much more serious. It is an act of love for this unseen person, who, in the very gift of love by which we surrender ourselves to his reality also makes his presence known to us.” Perhaps said differently, each time Passionists come together through this prayer what we are doing is surrendering ourselves to the profound love of Jesus and with that surrender Jesus makes his presence known to us through prayer, through community, through ministry and through the living of life. Why not try it for yourself, any time you pause to pray surrender yourself to Jesus by beginning your prayer with St. Paul’s beautiful words, “At the name of Jesus every knee must bend, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim to the Glory of God the Father that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Then let Jesus make his presence known to you! Have a great Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.” These words of Pope Francis seem to find life in our Gospel reading today. In the Gospel (Luke 14:12-14) Jesus asks us to think and act not just within our comfort zone but to think and act outside it. We are challenged by both Jesus and Pope Francis to walk out into a bruised, hurting and dirty world and to celebrate life with the people we find there.
This is not an easy challenge. It takes guts, it takes selflessness, and it takes the ability to love. As St. Paul puts it in his Letter to the Philippians it takes a humble regard for others, seeing them as important as ourselves. It takes a community effort with no one person being more important than everyone else. Pope Francis’ constant theme is for the Church to be a Church of Mercy. he has asked us to find dignity in each person and to invite all to God’s banquet. The challenge today is to ask ourselves, do we find dignity in each person we meet and are we willing to journey with them to God’s banquet? Have a great Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I have always liked the story that we find in today’s Gospel (Mark 12: 28b-34). I especially like the end when Jesus looks at the scribe and says, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” It is perhaps the only moment in the Gospels when Jesus and the scribes are on the same page. There is a mutual understanding, a mutual respect at this moment in the struggle between Jesus and the religious leaders of his time. It is a nice thing to see. Would that this kind of understand and respect would happen between leaders of all kinds during our time.
The respect and understanding centers around the two great commandments, love of God and love of neighbor and we might say there is a third, love of self, because Jesus says we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. As Jesus teaches and the scribe comes to understand, these are the two or three great commandments and everything else flows from them, which might explain why we find ourselves in the struggles that we are in today. If we just look around at our world, our culture, our society, our church the problems that we find relate to the way we live out or perhaps better said, don’t live out these commandments. Our struggles can be directly related to how we don’t value God and perhaps more importantly how we don’t value others or ourselves. We might even say that our struggles as a culture, society, church and a world can be traced to the lack of love that we have for ourselves. If we don’t love ourselves how can we love others, how can we love God? Love is not just wanting the best for ourselves, others and God. Love is a respect, a reverence for life, for who we are as individuals, as a culture, as a society, as a church, as a world. Love is finding the good in ourselves, others and God. Love is seeing God in others and in ourselves. Love is seeing, acknowledging, and accepting the differences in ourselves and others but most importantly still being able to find God. Our challenge today and every day is to put into practice these three great commandments. Our challenge is to wake up each day in love with God, our neighbor and ourselves! Have a great Sunday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." These words from the end of our Gospel today (Luke 14:1, 7-11), seem to be the center of what Jesus is trying to teach. Humility leads to success and respect. However, in our world today that is often not the case. How flamboyant, outrageous, bigger than life, and self-centered a person is offers them the place of honor.
If we think for a moment about where our success comes from the answer we might come to is others. God has given us our gifts and talents. Parents, family and significant other people in our life have helped us develop and hone our gifts and talents. Still others have given us opportunities to us our gifts and talents. Yes, we have had a lot to do with your success, but we always have help along the way. That is why we always need to be grateful and humble. If we look at our life honestly, we can see how much we owe others. We also can see that we have failed and if it wasn’t for others picking us up we would never reach the positive successful moments in our life. Another reason for humility is that God’s unearned love is always there for us. It is a gift that we can never earn, but one God’s is always willing to give to keep us going. Thus, to live life humbly means to acknowledge our dependence on God and others and makes a part of the human family, the Body of Christ and the Kingdom of God. Living humbly makes it possible to hear the words at the end of our life, “Well done, good and faithful servant, come share my joy!” Saturday blessing to all! Today’s Thoughts: I have always liked our first reading today from the Book of Wisdom (Wisdom 3:1-9) especially the line, “But they are at peace.” This reading is often used at funerals, moments when people are remembering a loved one, a friend, someone who has been important in their life, who has passed on. In the midst of grief, it can often be helpful to think of the person finally being at peace even if because of their passing we are not.
The Feast of All Souls is a day of remembrance. It gives us an opportunity to pause and remember the important people in our lives who have passed on. People who have left us physically, people whom we now hope are at peace now with God. It is a day when we remember them in a formal way at Eucharist and informally through stories and moments of prayer thankful for their presence in our lives. I have always felt that the Feast of All Souls is really the second half of the Feast of All Saints. Yesterday we celebrated the people formally named saints by the Church because of their faith filled lives, people who during their lives stepped out of the ordinary into the extraordinary and became examples, inspirations and role models within the Universal Church. Today we remember, we celebrate, all those ordinary people who perhaps did not step into the extraordinary except in our lives, people who gave us life, who taught us, nurtured us, protected us, and guided us. We remember, we celebrate, today people who were with us from the beginning or who stepped into our lives for a brief moment that made a difference. These are people who are not honored by the Church as saints in a formal way but whom we perhaps honor in our own special way, as saints with a little “s” because we are thankful for their presence, inspiration and love. We remember, and we pray today for all who journeyed through this life with the sure and certain hope that God has found them worthy because he is the Good Shepherd with an overflowing cup that has brought them to peace! Have a great Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I have a few disjoined thoughts for you today…
“To become saints, only one thing is necessary: to accept the grace which the Father gives us in Jesus Christ.” (Pope Francis) Today, we remember, we honor, and we say thank you to all the women and men whom the Church calls saints, but also whom we call saints. People who have touched our lives down through the centuries. People who shared their faith and perhaps more importantly lived their faith so that we might encounter the presence of God, so that we might grow into the people God created us to be, so that we might believe. They were mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, friends, teachers, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, neighbors, strangers, companions on the journey, ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives of faith. Pope Francis talks about the saints in our lives this way; “I see the holiness in the patience of the people of God: a woman who is raising children, a man who works to bring home the bread, the sick, the elderly priests who have so many wounds but have a smile on their faces because they served the Lord, the sisters who work hard and live a hidden sanctity. This is for me the common sanctity. I often associate sanctity with patience: not only patience as hypomoné [See note], taking charge of the events and circumstances of life, but also as a constancy in going forward, day by day. This is the sanctity of the militant church also mentioned by St. Ignatius. This was the sanctity of my parents: my dad, my mom, my grandmother Rosa who loved me so much. In my breviary I have the last will of my grandmother Rosa, and I read it often. For me it is like a prayer. She is a saint who has suffered so much, also spiritually, and yet always went forward with courage.” Note: (Hypomoné is a New Testament Greek word meaning – the capacity to endure under difficult circumstances; bearing everyday tasks, contradictions, tribulations.) Pope Francis also says that – “We need saints without cassocks, without veils - we need saints with jeans and tennis shoes. We need saints that go to the movies that listen to music that hang out with their friends.... We need saints that drink Coca-Cola, that eat hot dogs, that surf the internet and that listen to their iPods. We need saints that love the Eucharist, that are not afraid or embarrassed to eat a pizza or drink a beer with their friends. We need saints who love the movies, dance, sports, and theatre. We need saints that are open, sociable, normal, happy companions. We need saints who are in this world and who know how to enjoy the best in this world without being callous or mundane. We need saints.” One last thought from Pope Francis on this All Saints Day. Today’s Gospel is the passage of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel. During his homily a number of years ago at an All Saints Mass in Sweden Pope Francis proposed six new beatitudes for the modern era: "Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils inflicted on them by others, and forgive them from their heart; "Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized, and show them their closeness; "Blessed are those who see God in every person, and strive to make others also discover him; "Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home; "Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others; "Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians." So, to all those who lived these beatitudes and touched us with sanctity and helped us to be the people we are today…we say thank you! Have a great Thursday everyone! Remember today is a Holy Day so find a little time for God. |
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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