Monday, March 31, 2014

Reflection for Monday, March 31, 2014

MONDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

Reflecting on today’s first reading from Isaiah, I couldn’t help but become giddy at the thought of Paradise.  What a place it must be, filled with “rejoicing and happiness.”  And then the royal official, whose son was healed by Jesus; he must have royally rejoiced and felt like he was in Paradise once he learned his son was well!  When I was a kid, I used to think that Heaven might be boring – singing praises to God all day long, seeing the same old angels all the time and constantly “rejoicing.”  However, life has taught me that we in fact rejoice over God’s goodness much more often than I thought.  For example, when I am walking along West Pine between class on a Friday morning and I see a friendly face nearly every five feet, I silently rejoice that God has put me here at SLU and blessed me with great friends.  I think we can take this sort of rejoicing and make it a much more prevalent part of our daily lives.  Most of us are able to eat three meals a day, take a nice hot shower in the morning, and go to sleep under warm blankets with our heads on a comfortable pillow.  So much to rejoice about!
Join me during this Lent in taking time each day to rejoice over all of the blessings God has given each and every one of us.  He has a grand plan for everyone, and every day a little bit more of it unfolds right before our eyes and we ought not to miss it.  Let’s try to enjoy every moment and rejoice in God, just as the royal official and Isaiah did.  Nowadays, I don’t have such a narrow view of Heaven – I picture all of the favorite days of my life and multiply the happiness level by a thousand to get a better feel for it (and that’s only the beginning I’m sure!)  But let’s take our time here on earth, first - for all too soon we may find ourselves up in Heaven, rejoicing our hearts out.


My name is Jimmy Canning.  I am a junior here at SLU majoring in civil engineering.  Come on out to Marguerite on Mondays at 9:00 and join Patrick Cousins, me and a crazy gang of students for “Monday Maniacs” – you’ll be glad you did J

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