Thursday, April 19, 2018:
Readings: Acts 8:26-40; Ps. 66:8-20; John 6:44-51

Today, in Mercy, we pray with the Ethiopian eunuch (an alliterative and lyrical phrase with its own fascination). Philip finds this man reading Isaiah and asks if he understands the Scripture he is reading.  The man replies, “How can I, unless someone show me?”

Indeed, how do we learn to believe without the witness of our many teachers in the faith?

Today, on my 73rd birthday, (in a rare personal departure from my usual pattern of reflections), I count the faithful witnesses in my own life who have shown me the way to God:

• my faith-filled parents, whose well-worn devotionals I can still picture, set in silent witness beside their chairs
• my devout only-brother who, with his loving wife, are living witnesses to faithful marriage, parenthood, and family
• their dear children, grandchildren, and in-law children who faithfully reflect the miraculously recurring love of this family to which they have been born or wed
• my extended Catholic family, some who lived centuries before me, who carried the faith to my cradle
• the Sisters who taught me in my initial twelve years of Catholic education, each of whose names I can still repeat in grateful prayer
• my own dear Sisters of Mercy who share covenanted life with me, in an awesome hymn to the presence of God in our humble yet glorious lives
• my many companions in ministry, friendship, hope, service, and labor for these many years
• the kind people who have allowed me to serve them so that I might learn the face of God
• my precious, loving friends – beyond price, beyond description

Perhaps you, dear readers, may wish to join me in thanksgiving for those who have nourished your lives by the gift of their faithful witness. And whenever your birthday falls, may you be blessed with happiness.

This song is a great way to pray your thanksgiving.