Tuesday, December 4 Advent Reflection

St. John Paul II had plenty of reasons to give up hope, to tire and become discouraged. By the time he was 22, he’d experienced the death of his mother, father, and only brother. He entered an underground seminary while Nazis were occupying Poland — the world couldn’t have seemed darker! Yet he proclaimed, “Be not afraid!” What gave this man courage?

In a word, it was his faith. But that’s just another way of saying that he had put his life in God’s hands, and he knew God loved him and would care for him. When he made that decision, he tapped into an inexhaustible font of energy and zeal and drive and creativity in using what God gave him to serve others.

What are your deepest fears? What wears you down? What discourages you? Take a moment to hand those things over to God in a brief prayer.