Mtr Mary Trainor

Dear friend,

Encouragement.

We all need it. Some are good at offering it. Some are lousy at it. Some err on the side of withholding so as not to give someone else a big head.

Overall I’d say encouragement is undervalued and in short supply.

***

Today the Church remembers Saint Barnabas the Apostle, among whose recognized gifts was being a strong encourager of people new to the faith.

***

There is one boy in particular I recall from the hundreds that came every year to the private special education schools where I worked.

He excelled in nothing. His oft-aggressive behavior covered myriad insecurities. We saw this especially around lunchtime, when a teacher would call out names, and students would claim their lunch sacks, proudly announcing the contents. Jack had no lunch sack.

To be sure, the school saw to it that he had food. But he had no sack, packed at home by a loving parent, filled with nutritious and tasty food.

In time, one staff member volunteered to make a sack lunch every day for Jack. When gathered in the hall for the next lunch distribution, other students went to claim their lunches. Jack started to pick a fight. As usual.

I will always remember that day when, somewhere in the middle of passing out lunches, the staff called out, “Jack,” while holding up a very bulging lunch sack.

Jack stopped in the middle of throwing a punch, turned and looked at the sack with his name on it. His entire being softened.

***

The visible positive effect was gone by the end of school. But seeing the change wrought—if only for a short time—by a simple brown paper bag with J-a-c-k scrawled on it—makes me wonder what a lifetime of encouraging acts might produce.

With gratitude to Saint Barnabas the Apostle,

Mtr Mary