“Oh, I have got an all new attitude,
A lifetime subscription to gratitude.
Friend, you’ve got to change your
platitude,
Live an attitude of gratitude!”.
-Sponge Bob

Despair is the great temptation for people who try to live by conscience. The more you try to “do the right thing” the more obstacles there seems to be in your way. A good friend reminded me tonight “to take it light” when I was spewing out all the things that were bothering me. He was right in a way. We cannot let the negatives we face in our daily life take us down. But I take ‘light’ to mean taking life seriously while not letting it get you down.

The great remedy for temptations to despair and giving for me is feeling gratitude. I look at my wife coming home from the hospital tomorrow from hip surgery and am grateful. I look at all our family and friends who have reached out to us and prayed for Pat and I am grateful. Over my years in Milwaukee I have got to know so many good people that keep me going despite the teaching of killing at Marquette University, the greed and segregation of the Catholic Church in Milwaukee, the bureaucracy that hinders our St. Vincent De Paul Society in Milwaukee from being more effective and the good people that keep silent when seeing evil.

Another image that comes to my mind to keep me from despairing is the overwhelming love of God for each one of us, no matter what we do or do not do. A former Jesuit priest reminded me of this fact last weekend at the Call to Action conference and is something I know and feel when I take time to retreat and reflect.

I hope to make the next 4–6 weeks while my wife, Pat, is recovering at home a retreat time for more reflection. The more gratitude and love of God I feel the more joy and peace will me in my life.

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