A Needed Sign of Hope

We look beyond the Province of the United States this morning for a needed sign of hope.  Thank God for our global Marist World.  Recently in Porto Alegre, Brazil, 800 boys and girls from the Province of Rio Grande do Sul attended a day-long conference to educate them about their role in the larger community. The topics presented and discussed touched the real issues that are part of the lives of teens:  proper and positive use of social networking; the neurological effects of drugs on the ability to learn and on the formation and exercise of conscience; the power a person can have on him or herself and others; and respect for life from beginning to natural end.  A workshop on sign language as an example of how the handicapped can be integrated into society. Prayer also found an important place on the agenda:  in small group prayer and in the larger celebration of the Divine Office of Youth...a lively adaptation of the Prayer of Christians to make it a helpful experience of communal prayer for youth.
 Often, when things in our own yard seem to be out of control, we look over the fence and receive inspiration from our neighbor's beautiful and orderly yard and then implement what we've seen in our own...or at least take consolation in seeing that something better is possible.  Instead of a myopic despair, we can rise again with the strength of the larger community and the grace of the Spirit at work in it.  Lord, thank you for our Marist World and the power of the Spirit at work in it. Amen.
Bro. Rene