It’s been more than two months since we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus, but the hope that the risen Jesus gives is a gift we can rejoice in all year long.

The sacred scriptures are full of hope.  The word alone is spoken 113 times in the Bible.  In addition there are innumerable stories of hope and expressions of trust in God.  Hope is part of the Good News Jesus came to preach and live.  God said, “I will make a covenant with my chosen ones.  I will be your God and you will be my people.”  And Jesus said before he rose from the dead, “I will send you my Spirit.”  God promised and it happened.

In today’s society it is easy to be overwhelmed by feelings of hopelessness.  On a daily basis we witness wars, unemployment, hunger and crime.  Frequently in our lifetime we experience illness, death, disappointment and loss.  But when we believe in the God of Promise, hope is stronger than any experience we consider to be negative.

Joy and sorrow, tears and smiles can exist together.  Life and death are never found completely separate.  Seeds need to go into the dark soil before they can come to life.  Coconuts need to be cracked in order to be useful.  The native people of New Zealand have a saying, “Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall always behind you.”

Hope has been described as “a sense of the impossible becoming possible” and “the fundamental knowledge and feeling that there is a way out of difficulty, that things will work out.”

The paradox is that it is not possible to hope for anything if we don’t feel loss or some sense of emptiness.  If we are totally fulfilled there is no room for anything else.  Hope fills us energy and new life.

Hope has become incarnate in Jesus.  Because of his life, death and resurrection we can have hope.  In his death, hope was dashed, but in his resurrection hope was renewed. 

Hope begins with a God who promises eternal life.  Remembering is essential to hope.  We remember that the chosen people were brought out of exile into the Promised Land.  We remember that an old man and woman (Sarah and Abraham, Elizabeth and Zachary), beyond child-bearing years, gave birth to a son.  We remember that Jesus was born to a virgin.  Jesus suffered and died, but he rose from the dead.  All incomprehensible events!  It is good for us to remember.  Christian hope transforms the present moment because it is rooted in the past and believes in the future.  “How can we keep from singing?”

The Rosary

In an Apostolic Letter entitled “The Rosary of the Virgin Mary” Pope John Paul II stated, “The rosary is my favorite prayer, marvelous in its simplicity and its depth.”  That is quite an affirmation of this age-old prayer tradition!

We know that the rosary has been in existence since the Middle Ages.  It was a brilliant idea at that time, especially since there were no books for the laity and the gospel was proclaimed in Latin, so ordinary people didn’t have access to scripture.  It continues to be a profound and powerful prayer, which combines rote prayer and meditation.

It is made up of the Our Father, the prayer Jesus taught us which is quoted in scripture, the Hail Mary, portions of which are found in scripture, the doxology (Glory Be), a prayer of praise found in scripture, and a creed, statements of what we believe as Catholics.

Added to those rote prayers is the invitation to reflect on the great mysteries of our faith, feasts of Jesus and Mary and the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.  When I was a child we faithfully prayed the rosary as a family every day during Lent.  At that time I found it rather boring until my father added short reflections on each of the decades of the rosary.  Sometimes we said each decade for a special intention.  Each of those reflective practices helped me to connect the prayer to my life, drew me closer to Jesus and enabled me to see Mary as one who could assist me in knowing her Son better and bring my prayer to Him.

The rosary can be prayed anywhere, anytime—while commuting to and from work, while waiting in line or in a doctor’s waiting room.  Another very fitting place to pray the rosary is at our own grotto on the campus of Our Lady of Lourdes.  We can pray one decade at a time if that is all we have time for.  There is no obligation to finish the rosary or even a decade.  A person can say the prayers, or reflect on the mysteries or both.  It is not the quantity of the prayer, but the quality of the prayer that is important.

The rosary is a Mary prayer and we honor her when we pray it, but “at its heart it is a Christ-centered prayer,” said Pope John Paul.  When we pray the rosary we learn from Mary how to ponder important things in our hearts.  Many saints and holy people have loved the rosary and prayed it faithfully throughout their lives.  It can help us, too, to attain holiness.

Is there such a thing as the Spirituality of Laughter?  If there isn’t there should be.  Melannie Svoboda, SND, says “I believe there is a direct link between faith and humor.”  I agree with her.

We have long known that from a medical perspective humor and laughter are healing.  When we laugh, endorphins are pumped into our blood streams and as a result our bodies benefit from relaxation and healing.  Someone once said that laughter is the only tranquilizer that has no harmful side effects.

Laughter gives a person positive energy which can be turned into something meaningful.  Laughter, like music, is a universal language and it can unite an entire room full of people.  One of Jesus’ goals on earth was to unite all people as brothers and sisters of one another. 

If we can learn to laugh at ourselves when we recognize our limitations and make mistakes, we are accepting our frail and fallible humanity.  Humility is one of the virtues that Jesus demanded from his followers.  When we can be forgetful of self in favor of loving our neighbor (friend or enemy), we fulfill another mandate from Jesus.

Did you know that there is a World Laughter Day?  This year it will be celebrated on May 6.  The tag line is “World Peace through Laughter.”  But don’t wait until May 6 to laugh.  Enhance your physical and spiritual health by finding something at which to laugh each day.  The result will be greater healing, true humility, love and hope in the midst of a world bombarded by sickness, pride, hatred, violence, apathy and despair.  These virtues celebrated during the Easter Season bring growing peace and hope to Christians who believe in the resurrection!

This past year we have been exploring the lives of the saints in this "Corner." Because of the positive comments received, I considered continuing the practice for another year. However, instead I have decided to draw this series to a close in a summary article on the Communion of Saints.

We pray in the Apostles’ Creed that "we believe in the communion of saints." The Catholic Catechism says that "the communion of saints is the church." We learn from the gospels that all of us together form one body with Christ as the head. We are one in faith, and faith "is enriched by being shared."

The communion of saints means that we are all in solidarity with one another, living and dead. Every good act by any one member profits all; every sin by any one member harms all. If one member of the body suffers, we all suffer. If one member of the body is honored we are all honored.

The communion of saints implies that we are all called to be saints. If we were all saints, or striving to be, there would be no wars, no violence, no oppression, no poverty or hunger. What a wonderful world this would be! Thomas Merton wrote, "The saint preaches sermons by the way he walks and the way he stands—the way (she) picks things up and holds them in (her) hand." He suggests that we are to reverence everything—the self, other people and all things created, and in so doing we become saints. It is our actions that tell the story.

Hopefully the lives of the saints whose stories I shared during this past year offer some creative models of holiness that can be imitated. We are formed by what we admire. In the introduction to his book All Saints, Robert Ellsberg writes that to be able to call someone a saint "is a proof that the gospel can be lived." Let us all support one another toward this end, recognizing our place in the communion of saints.

St. Francis de Sales was born in 1567 to a noble and wealthy family. His parents wanted him to be a lawyer and a politician and Francis honored their desire by earning a doctorate in law. However, Francis felt strongly that he had a vocation to the priesthood and eventually, at the age of 26, he was ordained a priest.

At that time the region around Lake Geneva was being taken over by the Calvinists. Catholic churches were being burned, convents were being closed and priests and sisters were being exiled. The Catholic Duke of Savoy asked the Bishop to send priests to the area and Francis volunteered. The first three years doors were shut in his face, rocks were thrown at him. He was nearly assassinated several times, but he persevered and in the fourth year won over at least 2300 families, who were publicly reconciled with the Catholic Church. He preached kindness and gentleness, patience and cheerfulness even in the midst of struggle; the way he lived his life bore out the words he preached.

In 1602 he was consecrated Bishop of Geneva, Switzerland, but because the area was still a Calvinist stronghold he positioned himself in Annecy, France, about 50 miles south. He became know far and wide as an excellent preacher and spiritual director. One of his directees was Jeanne de Chantel, who was a wealthy young widow. Together they founded the Visitation Order, different from other religious communities of the time in that they were not to be cloistered, but rather to combine prayer with service among the poor.

Francis is one of the patrons of the Sisters of St. Joseph because although he founded the Visitation Sisters to be among the people, the Church at that time was not yet ready for such an innovative idea. That community was always semi-cloistered until after Vatican II. Forty years later the CSJ’s became the community he desired to form. In fact, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Annecy, maintain his archives, and I had the privilege of visiting that sacred space in 2002.

There are many succinct quotes attributed to Francis, e.g. "One can catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than with 100 barrels of vinegar." and "There is nothing so strong as gentleness, and there is nothing so gentle as real strength." His most famous book is Introduction to the Devout Life, which was written for ordinary lay people. At that time it was thought that holiness was reserved for priests and sisters. He challenged that concept with his preaching and writings. He advocated taking time for prayer even within a busy schedule, and he maintained that a person’s actions were the test of real prayer.

Francis died in the year 1622; the last word he spoke was, "Jesus." Pius XI canonized this humble, kind, gentle and wise man in 1923, naming him the Patron of Writers.