The first thing I do in the morning, after getting the kids ready for school, is read the Baby Blues comic strip in the Post-Dispatch.  I enjoy it.  It’s posted on the fridge to remind me how ironically it mirrors my life.  The latest is Wanda telling Darrell, “I used to dream about world travel . . . Now I just dream about having the kitchen clean for five minutes.” When attending college, I aspired to be a professional photojournalist.  It was my dream, to work for the National Geographic Magazine so I could travel the world.  Instead, God had other work for me. I met and married my wonderful husband.  I’m now currently a “domestic engineer” for my five beautiful children. Even thought this is not the career I hoped for, I wouldn’t change a thing. 

 Hope is the driving factor in human emotion that lets what might seem impossible be accomplished.  We hope that our children grow to be good Christians, we hope for a long life, we have hopes that the world becomes a better place and we definitely hope to be in Heaven one day. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it defines hope; “the virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart.”

When you feel hopeless, worrying consumes your life. Distressing over a medical test, daydreaming of a tropical vacation you can’t afford, preparing for the birth of a child, the safety of my children – our days are filled with anticipation and anxiety over what the future holds. Don’t distress oneself.  In several verses throughout the bible it reads, “give your worries to the Lord.”  Hope can be resolved through Jesus and prayer.  My favorite place to pray is in the Adoration Chapel.  If  I’m ever downhearted and feel discouraged, I head straight to the chapel.  It’s amazing the peace that overwhelms me after I spend some reverent time with the Lord. What a desolated world this would be without the virtue of hope. I’ve realized hope is an amazing habit. I trust you will too.  I still hope someday to travel the world, but for now I’m doing the Lords work.

  “May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.”    Romans 15:13