Maybe one day we’ll grow weary of whining and celebrate the rain, the manna, the halffilled glass of water, the little gifts from heaven that make each day bearable. Instead of cloaking ourselves in the armor of pessimism, maybe we’ll concede that we are who we are: capricious, unfortunate, wonderful, delicate, alive. Forgiven.
+Mark Collins, writer
Hope is a state of mind, not of the world.
Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not because it stands for a chance to succeed.
+Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic
HOPE SEEMS TO BE A necessity these days with all that is going on in the world. Because so much of what is going on may fill us with a pessimistic attitude, we may want to consider looking at our world through the eyes of Vaclav Havel, who defines hope in what for me is a new way of thinking and looking at my own pessimism and need for an attitude change about the many things that bother me these days.
I do concede that there are times, as Mark Collins writes, when I am capricious, unfortunate, and then wonderful, delicate, alive, and certainly most often forgiving and forgiven. I can begin to see that the real goal of my life as well as my vocation is to develop a state of mind that can see all that is going on around me through a deeper sense of just what it means to be a person of hope.
Actually, as I reflect on this new way of defining hope, I cannot help but think about where spirituality comes into play in this aspect of life. It definitely affects the attitude one needs to be a person of hope. An example of this deeper and powerful sense of hope is before me and the Sisters in my religious community as we continue to consider, during our 108 years of history, the very real possibility of our completion and transition as a religious community of women in the Catholic Church and as faithful followers of St. Francis of Assisi in living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When Mother Mary Adelaide and the pioneer Sisters came to Toledo almost 108 years
n ago to teach the Polish immigrant children, they hoped that the ministry would be successful and had no real assurance that it would be. Times were difficult in those early days, but they came to work for something because it was good, and they did succeed as it is abundantly evident when one visits the Motherhouse campus today.
My prayer is that we become a people of hope—people who have the ability to work for something because it is good whether it is successful or not. Also, that we become people of forgiveness and forgiving—which may be our best hope. Amen.
Sister Mary Thill is a Sylvania Franciscan Sister. She can be reached at mthill@sistersosf.org. ✲
