On the first day of the Novena of Grace, Fr. Gary Smith, SJ, shared the rich image of the living root bridges of northeast India, which can serve as a metaphor for the millions of moments in which we choose life. He also drew inspiration for his Novena reflection from the words of Dorothy Day, who said that upon her conversion to Catholicism, she “had a sense of being followed, of being desired; a sense of hope and expectation.”
Much like Day’s interior sense of God as a second heart, Fr. Gary’s words imbued an authentic spirit of trust and hope in our processes of choosing life — especially when living often throws challenges that reduce us to the cynical observation: “what’s the point.”