Thoughts on gifts

 

Receiving the Gifts of Others

A gift only becomes a gift when it is received; and nothing we have to give—wealth, talents, competence, or just beauty— will ever be recognized as true gifts until someone is open to accept them. This all suggests that if we want others to grow— that is, to discover their potential and capacities, to experience that they have something to live and work for—we should first of all be able to recognize their gifts and be willing to receive them. For we only become fully human when we are received and accepted. Henri Nouwen

Thought on our focus

  Focus

 In the letter to the Hebrews, the author likens our life to an athletic event, a race to the finish. He encourages us to persevere, to keep running even and especially when we are tired and discouraged and through it all to "keep our eyes fixed on Jesus". He is our model and has already run the race and is waiting for us at the finish line. I've learned that we give power to what we focus on. If we focus on our fears and anxieties, we become more frightened and anxious. If we focus on our temptations and weakness, they get harder to resist. If we focus on our blessings, we become more aware of how blessed we are, how loved by our God. When we focus on Jesus and what He did out of love for us, our relationship with Him grows and we become more peaceful and secure in His presence, more aware of His love and mercy. Another author wrote that "we become what we contemplate" and so I encourage you to look for a few moments at the crucifix. Allow that reminder of His infinite love to transform you, to make you into the person He calls you to be, to be Him to all whose life you touch.

Fr. Ralph Huse, SJ

Thoughts on fruitfulness

 

We Are Called To Be Fruitful

You have to be really aware of the difference between fruitfulness and success because the world is always talking to you about your success. Society keeps asking you: “Show me your trophies. Show me, how many books have you written? Show me, how many games did you win? Show me, how much money did you make? Show me. . . .” And there is nothing wrong with any of that. I am saying that finally that’s not the question. The question is: “Are you going to bear fruit?” And the amazing thing is that our fruitfulness comes out of our vulnerability and not just out of our power. Actually it comes out of our powerlessness. If the ground wants to be fruitful, you have to break it open a little bit. The hard ground cannot bear fruit; it has to be raked open. And the mystery is that our illness and our weakness and our many ways of dying are often the ways that we get in touch with our vulnerabilities. You and I have to trust that they will allow us to be more fruitful if lived faithfully. Precisely where we are weakest and often most broken and most needy, precisely there can be the ground of our fruitfulness. That is the vision that means that death can indeed be the final healing—because it becomes the way to be so vulnerable that we can bear fruit in a whole new way. Like trees that die and become fuel, and like leaves that die and become fertilizer, in nature something new comes out from death all the time. So you have to realize that you are part of that beautiful process, that your death is not the end but in fact it is the source of your fruitfulness beyond you in new generations, in new centuries. Henri Nouwen