Masters of the Meaning

     “Our freedom always has this marvelous power to make what is taken from us – by life, events, or other people – into something offered. Externally there is no visible difference, but internally everything is transfigured: fate into free choice, constraint into love, loss into fruitfulness. Human freedom is of absolutely unheard-of greatness. It does not confer the power to change everything, but it does empower us to give a meaning to everything, even meaningless things; and that is much better. We are not always masters of the unfolding of our lives, but we can be masters of the meaning we give them. Our freedom can transform any event in our lives into an expression of love, abandonment, trust, hope, and offering.”                                                                                          Fr. Jacques Phillipe


     Life is not fair! Innocent people suffer. Family and friends betray us. Good people get sick, lose their jobs, their house, their finances, or their lives. We sometimes struggle to take the next step, only to get knocked down by something else. When these things happen, how do we keep our inner peace? How do we believe and trust that, in spite of the circumstances, God still loves us? What can we do to acquire the freedom that Fr. Jacques writes about?

Not Your Average Joe

     “O God, Creator of all things, who laid down for the human race the law of work, graciously grant that by the example of St. Joseph and under his patronage we may complete the works You set us to do and attain the rewards You promise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” Collect for the feast of St. Joseph the Worker


     God has a plan for each one of us: to complete the work He has called us to do. It is often in the mundane, ordinary work of our everyday lives that God expects us to exercise this plan. We must do all that we do, even when we don’t feel like it, in the best way possible, so we may offer it to God as a gift.