We all seek hope, an expression vocal or mental. An expression of our conviction of the future being something better than today. We live with it even when we are not aware of it. Why? Because we would not go on with our day to day lives if there were no hope. It is something intrinsic to our most basic desire in life. Life without hope would not be life. Many people, at one point or another, question hope and fall into despair at times even while it is hope which is the glimmer that helps people go on. “Hope is the pillar that holds up the world.” (Pliny the Elder)

If we have hope, we then have no fear, because fear is left to those who see no possibility of change or development in their lives. We live in hope because we know that with the Resurrection we are not left to the fear of death and sorrow. We have the hope of eternal life and we know that we are not left in the lives we once had. But now rather, we are filled with possibilities for a greater day. A better us.

This doesn’t mean that we will be freed in this life from difficulties and sorrows. We still remain for the moment in “this valley of tears”, but we have holy hope that one day our sorrows and difficulties will be over. And that these present sorrows will be turned to joy, if not now, then in the age to come.

We need to focus on several things to achieve this:
• Keep our eyes fixed on the Saviour at all times.
• Trust God that He is omniscient.
• We are not orphans, Jesus said so.
• We have a guardian angel (get to know him St Josemaria Escriva said).
• Pray daily, deeper than we did before.
• Holy Scriptures and Spiritual reading.
• Go to Mass. (The On-line parish can only do so much for us).

Start there.

Build on a good and solid effort at a prayer life and trust in the Saviour who did so much and requires so little in return. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer 29, 11 )

Hope even rises from ashes, rises from the tomb. Let God bring that hope to each of our lives in the joy of Easter.