Blog: Retreat with Us

Messages of Hope

May 17, 2020

Fr. Michael Schleupner offers another wonderful reflection for our blog today. He will be with us for our August Directed Retreat this summer and we’re really looking forward to welcoming him back to the Center. If you’d like to learn more about this retreat or about Fr. Michael, please click here. Let’s take a moment to quietly reflect on his important message about hope…hope

Dear Friends,

Recently I heard a priest say in a homily that there are three degrees of hope. I like this way of looking at hope and want to share it with you.

First, there is casual hope.

For example, I hope that we will have a delicious dinner this evening or that the baseball season will get started soon.

These are good things to hope for. Here, my hope is directed more to things that will make my life enjoyable.

Then there is precious hope.

For example, we hope that we and our loved ones will not get the coronavirus or that our job will stay secure. Here, our hope is directed to major, important elements of our lives.

This precious hope is deeper than casual hope, and if it is unfulfilled, we can be very anxious, upset and even heartbroken.

And then finally, there is ultimate hope.

This is hope regarding the ultimate realities of life.

For example, I hope that my relationship with Christ will help me in times of suffering and loss. I hope that by the time my life on this earth ends, I will have become the kind of person that God calls me to be. I hope that my faith in the paschal mystery will enable me to see new life coming from and even through death, including my own death. I hope that my belief in heaven, in a fullness of life with the One who is life and light and love itself will give me inner peace, no matter what.

All of the above types or degrees of hope are good.

We just have to make sure that our ultimate hopes are in place, and that, in some way, they are forming or enriching all the other hopes in our lives.

This wonderful, joyous Easter Season and this challenging, dangerous pandemic – both of these lead me to think about hope today.

May the peace and hope of the risen Christ be with us! Amen. ~Father Michael Schleupner

If you’d like to subscribe to Fr. Michael’s “Inbox Inspirations” emails with reflections like this, please click here.