He Who Is Blessed Sometimes Suffers

Same new disciple of God also talked about the blessings that we pray for. Oftentimes we are warned to be careful what we wish for. Even warranting more caution is when we do not know what we really should be asking for. Blessings, he said, may not always mean a life of comfort, or things going our way whenever and however we want them. In retrospect, the lives of saints, Mother Teresa even, were filled with hardships and challenges beyond what most of us would accept as a blessed life here on earth. And yet these people were blessed long before they attained the rewards of heaven.

Perhaps being blessed doesn't always mean easy,or comfortable, or lucky, or fortunate. Perhaps being blessed means having God in your heart, just like Mary did. Perhaps being blessed means having peace in one's heart and still feeling God's presence in the midst of hardship, endless trials, and even failure. When nothing ever seems to go the way we want them to, when our bodies are so tired from afflictions we do not deserve and our minds filled with angst we can't chase away, and still we know that God is with us through it all...is this not all the blessing we need?


The Lord bless us and keep us.
The Lord shine his face upon us and be gracious to us.
The Lord look upon us kindly and give us peace.