Be positive

Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.

Noam Chomsky

When I was a freshman at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles, I was a weekly boarder as, at that time, we had no highways between St. Louis and St. Charles and the only bridge across the Missouri river was a very old, narrow one. We always had a Jesuit for the retreat which began on Monday night and ended Friday morning. My first year retreat gave me a love for retreats. We kept perfect silence during those days. Before ending the retreat, Father Corley, S.J., asked us to say this prayer of St. Ignatius for 40 days. I copy it here for any who do not know it.

Lord, teach me to be generous.

Teach me to serve you as you deserve;

to give and not to count the cost,

to fight and not to heed the wounds,

to toil and not to seek for rest, 

to labor and not to ask for reward.

It made a huge impression on me when I was thirteen and I have never forgotten it!

I entered the Society of the Sacred Heart 70 years ago today!