With Every Sunrise
When Pope Francis announced the start of the Year of the Consecrated Life last November, he set forth three aims: To look to the past with gratitude, to live the present with passion, and to embrace the future with hope.
While these aims were announced in the context of celebrating religious life, there is also something insightful about them for every life.
It can be difficult to look to the past with gratitude. Illness, divorce, and loss are associated with grief—not gratitude. And yet when I choose to meditate on gratitude, I find there is much to be thankful for in the past.
I am thankful for a relationship that produced two children I love dearly. I am thankful for happy memories of family vacations and Friday family movie nights. I am thankful for my parents, who came to help me after my cancer diagnosis. I am thankful for the love of a man who gave me his arm to lean on as I took my first painful steps after surgery and then gave me moral support as I rebuilt my life, constantly reassuring me that I was not alone.
*Editor’s note: Full print content also includes a sidebar by well-known author and blogger, Sarah Reinhard. It contains practical advice on how to engage your family (specifically your children) in the faith.
