He fashioned the heart of each, he who knows all their works. Psalm 33:15

I've recently come to recognize and appreciate the graciousness of God in my life. When I lost my mother's presence and companionship to death, God graciously sent a brand new friend my way.  When a person I admired recently moved away, God graciously put back into my life someone whose work brought them home again. When I lost my childhood home, God reminded me of my real home which is in God.

Not only in loss do I find God's graciousness. When a butterfly flits past, when the sun rays slink through the clouds, when a friend unexpectedly emails me, when I need a pick-me-up and someone offers to drive me to a park so I can be by the water, I experience God's graciousness.

It is this same graciousness I find mirrored in others throughout my day. Today's psalm speaks of fashioning the hearts of each.

Thank you for fashioning such gracious hearts and please, God, let mine be one of them this day.

Sr. Charlene Hug, S.N.D.

Then, taking the several loaves he gave thanks … Mark 8:6

We are often nagged by fear.  We are worried that we will not have enough - enough time, energy, money, skill or whatever.  We are aware of our very human limitations.

The disciples were also aware of their human limitations.  They had but a few loaves and fish, and before them were 4000 hungry people.  They did not have enough.

Jesus took what they had, blessed it, and in God's overflowing generosity, fed the crowd with even more food left over.  When we give what little we have to our infinite God, God makes it an overflowing plenitude.

Today, as we begin our day, let us offer what we have to God, our few loaves and fish, and ask for the divine blessing.  Then, in God, it will be enough.

Msgr. Stephen J. Rosetti

O loving God, in your boundless generosity, take away our fear and help us to trust in your Divine Providence.

Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never forsake you. …" Hebrews 13:5

St. Augustine says we are made for love.  But made for love does not mean we know how to love. Learning to love tells the story of our lives. As in any classroom, we often fail. In whatever absorbs us — work, meetings, sports, cooking, prayer — the call to love can be heard. We seek what we don't fully grasp, even when it is present. And in some ways, love is always present.

St. Paul dispels the myths. To love is not comfortable or easy. Not a surge of feeling, love is a great thirst.  We are called into struggle to find rest. Paul tells us to open our lives to strangers and to treat outsiders as angels in our midst. Prisoners must be shown care as if we were locked up together. Celebrate the promises made before God and the community. Do not fall under the spell of money. Because wealth is already present, our gifts can flow freely.

God, free us from the illusions of love.

Jeanne Schuler