In today’s first reading we are told to be generous, basically “we get what we give.” In Pope Francis’s Joy of the Gospel he makes a comment that we are not to live and act as “sour-pusses,” but to be confident that God’s grace is with us for any task at hand.
We only get out of life what we are willing to put into it. Children are often more entertained with the container/box than the item inside. I volunteer in a women’s shelter, where each family lives in one room. I leave each week amazed at how lovingly the kids and moms interact with one another. What little they have is willingly and lovingly shared. To me each week the lesson learned about, “what we sow we reap,” is seen as the many women who once lived in this shelter come back to volunteer and support our projects. The stranger we are afraid to meet can often bring us the most love.
—Camille Devaney serves as Board chair for the Ignatian Spirituality Project (ISP).