Blessed

Dear Parish Family,

Just the other day as I was greeting a good friend, her response to my “How are you?” was “I am Blessed”. This was not the typical response we usually get of “ fine, good, or even hanging in there”. Her response made me pause, because I realized she truly was blessed in her awareness of God’s presence in her life, and she was giving witness to this fact, in her response. I had to ask once again, but this time my real question was, how has God Blessed you? I need to know more, as we spoke, she shared about some of her life’s struggles, and yet she was focused and happily accepting of the will of God, which in return filled her with comfort and happiness.
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In our Gospel, Jesus goes to the mountain and teaches the people, saying BLESSED (happy) are those who suffer, mourn and express purity of heart and other virtues. What the world sees as tragic or empty, Jesus sees as blessed. In order to live as his disciples and love others, we must not strive for the things of this world. The world may say that we will find happiness when we have money, pleasure, comfort and power, but this is not true. Instead, we must actually seek out and cultivate what is of God.
A good place to start is by prayerfully examining what things we are most attached to and discerning if those things are coming between ourselves and God. If something comes up as an obstacle, we should choose to focus on the virtue of the beatitude. For example, someone who seeks power or control in an inordinate way would want to focus on the beatitude of meekness. I think this is what my friend was doing. We will have struggles and obstacles, but when we recognize that many times these are opportunities to focus on God, and know that our reward is not here on earth, but by his side, in his kingdom.

As disciples of Christ, all who live according to his way of life are – and will be – richly blessed. May our struggles be building blocks for our salvation and not stumbling blocks.


Siempre Adelante,


​Tere Delgado
Faith Formation Minister 

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