Step One of The Way of the Heart invites us to recognize with gratitude how the Lord loves us in the concrete reality of our lives. How he makes himself present in the things we live and how we are to respond by giving thanks for so much good received.

This exercise is the sweet task of reflecting in our hearts what we live. To have been created and loved by God, to recognize that God inhabits his creation and is at the heart of every created thing making it beautiful and pleasing. The good that surrounds us descends from God. The air, the sun, nature, the people who accompany us on our journey, our personal abilities, our drive in the face of difficulties, our desires for love and growth, all good is only a faint reflection of God the Supreme Good. 

How different life could be if only we were more open and more receptive! We would discover that life is free and that we do not have to give anything in return. To live what is ours, to help our brothers and sisters, to contemplate beauty, to enjoy what we have, should not be an exchange for what we live, but a grateful response from those who feel that they have received everything for free and only want to respond to love by loving with their lives.

People who live conscious of the gratuity of life are open to discovering the good that everything brings them, as if they were always attentive to the fact that God meets them in the events they live. Living in this way gives rise almost automatically to a natural “thank you for being alive”, regardless of the circumstances in which they live.

We are only called to live what is a gift and to give ourselves fully in the simplicity of everyday life. To our work, to people, cultivating healthy and sincere bonds, helping, and being available to receive whatever comes our way, because everything we receive every day is pure generosity of God’s love.

Lucid people discover in the interior of daily life the secret of fullness, God who inhabits the events they live.

Let us love by responding with the gift of our life, let us live in gratitude.

Bettina Raed

Vice International Director

Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network