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People sometimes complain that God doesn’t speak to them, or if he does, they don’t recognize his voice. We all know stories of people who suddenly hear God speak to them in the midst of extraordinary or dramatic events.

Column by Sister Anne Marie Walsh, SOLT Jesus tells us that we will be accountable for every word we use. Right away, that tells us that there is something extraordinary about language and our use of it that must be respected. With a bit of reflection, it becomes apparent that language in all its forms is meant to serve communion, our communion with God and with others. Likewise, it serves our own inner healing and integrity so that true communion actually becomes possible for us.

Sister Anne Marie Walsh, SOLT, column: In a time that needs the witness of Christian hope more than ever, our Holy Father, Pope Francis, says the following about hope, “It is a gift of God and a task for every Christian.” He explains that it is more than just “a mere act of optimism.” Rather, it is “waiting for something that has already been given to us,” (salvation and full communion with the Lord.) What might that look like in the world of today?

As C.S. Lewis puts it: “If you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire; if you want to be wet, you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.”

Commentary by Sister Anne Marie Walsh, SOLT Most of us could stand to have a little more joy in our lives. In fact, St. Thomas Aquinas said that man cannot live without joy. And if he does not find authentic joy, he will inevitably be drawn to carnal delights (pleasures of the flesh) and the innumerable addictions that derive from them. Pope St. John Paul II speaks of joy this way, “God made us for joy. God is joy, and the joy of living reflects the original joy that God felt in creating us.”

Grace Notes column by Sister Anne Marie Walsh, SOLT Jesus has laid down several conditions for entering the kingdom of God. These are well known and, of course, revolve around eliminating sin in our lives and becoming holy, becoming like Jesus. But he also said we have to become like little children. The problem is that many of us wouldn’t fit through the heavenly gates the way we are now. Our giant ego, our giant pride, our giant sensitivity, our giant selfishness, our giant need to be in control, keep us spiritually “obese.” (Photo of Irish writer Oscar Wilde)

The truth is we should be far more interested in a real relationship with our Lord than curious about the dark forces that manifest around us at times. This was the strength of the apostles. They encountered the kingdom of darkness often in their ministry.

The ordinary Christian knows something the unbeliever does not. When Christians, especially Catholics, look at the state of the world, they know the primary source of evil is not cultural, political, or sociological. It’s spiritual.

There is a whole industry today built around people’s anxiety to be prepared in the event of a catastrophic disaster, both natural and man-made. How would you survive if there was a nuclear war, if there was an asteroid hit, or if the grid was completely knocked out? It’s the dilemma of Lazarus. Jesus raised him from the dead at his sisters' pleading. But his reprieve from death was temporary. He eventually had to be prepared to die again. You can bet, though, that the time between his first death and second death served to detach him even more from this present life so that he was fully ready when it came time to die again.

It’s often been said that God gives us the leaders we deserve. If that’s true, we should then do everything in our power to become worthy of good leaders. Everyone who grows anything knows that the stock you start out with is very important. If the stock is not healthy, it will not produce good fruit. Simply saying this, in a political season, there is the pressing temptation to pivot to our leaders and complain about our options.

Living life by a particular motto can have untold benefits. Many of the saints had mottos which they oriented their entire lives to. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?” That motto spoke to St. Anthony of the desert as the conversion or turning point of his entire life.