I’m sitting at home on this snowy winter’s day. It’s nice to to have the day off due to all the snow and ice we are predicted to receive before the storm ends tonight. Last week, I had chance to attend a New Year’s eve retreat day at Bon Secours Retreat Center, and it was delightful and thought provoking.
Our retreat leader was named Joy, and her name certainly matched her personality. I signed up for the retreat because I saw that Joy would be presenting through the lens of Ignatian Spirituality, which is also the spirituality which guides nearly everything I do, including the retreats I lead at Bon Secours.
It was a lovely day, warm enough to walk the grounds during our break times, or sit by the pond just outside our meeting space. I took this photo of the pond a few years ago while on another retreat. Maybe someone there this morning, took as similar photo as the snow and sunrise blended together.
Recently Pope Francis declared a Jubilee of Hope, starting this past Christmas and lasting through 2025. It’s hard to believe the Great Jubilee declared by St. Pope John Paul II was twenty-five years ago. I was blessed to participate in that amazing event in a number of ways, including trips with my family to Italy.
I really liked Pope Francis’ call to become a person of hope, starting now and hopefully lasting all my days. In a lot of ways, our world seems to be lacking this great virtue of hope, and I for one want to make being a person of hope a personal priority this year. I’ve been working on it since Christmas, but need to step it up. The presenter on the New Year’s retreat mentioned above gave the participants several handouts on how to be more hopeful in our daily lives, and I have already found them helpful.
So how about you? Could you answer Pope Francis’ call to become a person of hope, to bring hope to the hopeless, and to remind others about the importance of this virtue, which has the potential of making the world a better place? We’re just six days into the New Year. We have 359 days to go!
