June 1, 2025
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the virtues: faith, hope, and charity. I quoted the French writer, Charles Péguy and his analogy that faith, hope, charity are three sisters walking together—and the little virtue, hope, is the one who makes them all walk together. I want to talk more about hope. What is hope? Charles Péguy says hope loves what will be. It is true! How else can we define hope?
We cannot live without hope. Fr. T.S. Sullivan, OMI, says this about hope, “What food is to the body, hope is to the soul. Deprive a man of food and he will die—not immediately, but day by day he will grow weaker until the spark of life is extinguished. So too with a man, a nation or a civilization that has ceased to hope.”
We see in the world so many who need help and suffer from addiction and other problems. Why? I think it is because they are without hope. I know hope has helped me as I recover. What if I did not have hope? My days would be long and dark. I would be fearful of the future. But with hope—I see light and I know the future will be safe. I am not afraid.
I met Our Lady of Hope when my family visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Hope in Essex, NY. That is where I met the Oblates. There is a statue of our Lady of Hope in our Shrine. Have you stopped to pray to her? She watches over all of you each day!
I pray for you–you pray for me.
