Chotard Doll

Dear Companions on the journey,

In Luke’s gospel for today, 10 lepers are cleansed and only one returns to thank Jesus.

Every day I give thanks for the enormous gifts of my life: comfort, warmth, beauty, health, love. Yet outside my cocoon, the stories abound of devastation: persecution of minorities, irreconcilable hostilities, the political divisions of our country…you know them all.

When I pray about these things and begin to feel overwhelmed or useless, I stop, and give thanks to God for his gift of Hope that fills all circumstances:

—for the Hope that reaffirms the good that dwells within each of us and counteracts the evil in the world;

—for the Hope that truth and justice will prevail because God is with us, and the Holy Spirit is active and working in and through us all.

Finally, I pray that as this nation pauses to give thanks, the Holy Spirit will renew in us the desire to work together for the peace of God which passes all understanding. Amen

Faithfully,

—Chotard