Blessings

I think just about everyone is familiar with The Beatitudes, a set of blessings listed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.  (If you're Roman Catholic, they were the basis of the Gospel for this week's Mass.)  But have you heard about the set of modern Beatitudes that were proposed by Pope Francis during his 2016 visit to Sweden? According to the Catholic News Service, they are:

• Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils inflicted on them by others and forgive them from their heart. 

• Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized and show them their closeness. 

• Blessed are those who see God in every person and strive to make others also discover him. 

• Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home. 

• Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others. 

• Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians.

I think they're equally good words to live by.

Five years ago today: Soup's On