Monday, November 23, 2009

heard around the table yesterday

The kids helped me clean house yesterday after church so that I could focus on making our pre Thanksgiving turkey dinner. We are traveling this year and I won't be the one cooking. So, I made a smaller version of what I usually make and we sat down and enjoyed turkey, green beans, cornbread dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy along with pumpkin pie and apple pie. It was so yummy and such a nice day all the way through.

The youngest suggested we go around and list what we were thankful for while we ate. The usual items were listed, but then a comment was made that tied back into the homily we had heard earlier in the day.

Our pastor has begun to deliver a four part talk on Hope. His premise is that Hope, one of the virtues, is often misunderstood. If you look at the opposite of Hope, which in his opinion is isolation, hope is best understood. He used three examples to help illustrate his point: marriage, Mother Theresa of Calcutta and then a personal memory of a day he spent at St. Jude Children's hospital.

Hope is basically being truly WITH someone. You are WITH them on the journey, you may not have the cure, solution, answer, but you are WITH them physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. By our presence we are Hope to each other.

I don't often enjoy this priest's homilies, but I thought the idea he was putting forth was a good one. Community, friendship, family, your spouse....that is Hope.

So, when it was my turn at dinner to say what I was thankful for I said I was thankful for my husband and the youngest said, "Yeah Mom, just like in church today, he is your hope...so without him you'd be hopeless!" Which of course had everyone laughing.

Good dinner, good conversation, lots of laughter and love....guess our house has Hope.

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