Each of us knows someone who is very interesting and exciting to be around.
This person may be very smart, or well read, or very knowledgeable about a subject.
This person may have an interesting job or hobby or tells you stories that capture your imagination. That person may have travelled to many different places.
Perhaps you would like to be like this person. Please describe him or her and tell us what makes that person so special and different from others.

Today you received the most important letter of your life — the one that you had been waiting for so long.
What does the letter say?

I must find hope.
How do YOU find hope for your life.
Please share.

You are texting the most important message of your life.

What does it say?

This morning I said my prayers with hope in my heart. How else then to start a new year in which so many new things will be ahead for us? One simply has to insist on hope.

I prayed to God for good health for my wife who has had a terribly difficult year with surgery and radiation treatment that have exhausted her and left us frightened. I asked for love and good health for my daughter who, like many of us, has been through a very hard year because of the terrible economy. I thought with love of two old, dear friends who have been courageously fighting disease that riddles their bodies. I asked for some peace for our troubled, wonderful world and for people to show more love to one another.

These are all big hopes, but I also recognized once again this morning that to make the most of our short lives, we need to insist on hope because that will give us energy to cope with all the challenging things that will come our way in the days ahead. Maybe not all the hopes will be realized, but you have to begin somewhere by believing that things can get better. Without hope, everything is lost.

What about you? As your greet the new year what are the hopes in your own heart? What do you pray for? What do you seek?
Will you share them with us?