Beloved of Holy Spirit Catholic Community,

During this ordinary time of the year, we are being taught about being better disciples. We are being taught to grow in more confident trust in God – that God is loving us and caring for us at every moment as his children.

This weekend’s readings remind us of the life-giving qualities received by those who follow God’s teachings and who trust in God’s goodness.

St. Francis de Sales offers us a wonderful image that illustrates how we should trust in this God who has done so much to gain our trust.  He tells us to think of the little children who go on a walk with their dad.

“With one hand they hold fast to their father, and with the other hand they pick berries from the wayside hedge, or play with a stick, or throw stones in the pond.  If we handle the goods, affairs, and problems of this world with one hand, we must always hold fast with the other to our heavenly Father’s hand.

We should look up at him from time to time to see if we are pleasing him, which is another way of saying…to see if our will is united to His.

We do this through prayer and the sacraments, through study of our faith, His commandments and the teachings of the Church.  Above all, we should never let go of his hand by direct disobedience to his will or by laziness in our spiritual lives.

It is tempting to think we will gather more berries with both hands, but what good are the berries along the road of life, if we are lost, injured, or kidnapped or can’t find our way home.”

My friends, when your ordinary work or business is not especially engrossing, let your heart be fixed more on God than on it;  and if the work be such as to require your undivided attention, then pause from time to time and look to God, even as navigators who make for the haven they would attain, by looking up at the heavens rather than down upon the deeps on which they sail. In doing so, God will work with you, in you, and for you, and your work will be blessed.