How do I pass an ArrayList method to a different method in the same class?

What I am working on is reading in a file and passing it to an ArrayList which I have already done with this:

public ArrayList readInPhrase() {

    String fileName = "wholephrase.txt";
    ArrayList<String> wholePhrase = new ArrayList<String>();

    try {

        //creates fileReader object
        FileReader inputFile = new FileReader(fileName);

        //create an instance of BufferedReader
        BufferedReader bufferReader = new BufferedReader(inputFile);

        //variable to hold lines in the file
        String line;

        //read file line by line and add to the wholePhrase array
        while ((line = bufferReader.readLine()) != null) {
            wholePhrase.add(line);
        }//end of while

        //close buffer reader
        bufferReader.close();

    }//end of try

    catch(FileNotFoundException ex) {
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Unable to open file '" +
                fileName + " ' ", "Error", 
                JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE, null);
    }//end of file not found catch

    catch(Exception ex) {
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Error while reading in file '" 
                + fileName + " ' ", "Error", 
                JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE, null);
    }//end of read in error

    return(wholePhrase);

}//end of readInPhrase

The problem that I am now having is that I would like to go through this ArrayList and randomly select one phrase from it to eventually append asterisk's to part of the phrase that is selected. I have tried a variety of different ways to do this.

This is the last attempt that I have tried:

public String getPhrase(ArrayList<String> wholePhrase) {

    Random random = new Random();

    //get random phrase
    int index = random.nextInt(wholePhrase.size());
    String phrase = wholePhrase.get(index);

    return(phrase);

    }//end of getPhrase

I am not entirely sure where it is that I am getting lost at. Any help that can be offered will be greatly appreciated, Thank you in advance!