I had been struggling with the concept of practicing hope because I was stuck on the idea that I first had to find hope. This is easy when I make my world small and look within my family and neighborhood because I am blessed in my life. The difficulty comes when I widen my world and look at poverty, homelessness, the state of our government and the governments of other countries, and the way people treat others in general.

My moment came when I picked up my son Sam (9th grade) from Confirmation last Wednesday. He immediately began talking about the guest speaker [Fardosa Hassan, the Muslim Student Program Associate, Augsburg University] and the information that had been shared. Listening to him talk about the discussion and his outrage at how people treat each other based on their differences instead of seeing that we all are people with more similarities than differences…I found my hope.

I find hope in Gloria Dei and in the public schools for giving my son a real whole world education and for giving him the opportunity to interact and have relationships with people who represent the world. I have hope in the generation that we are raising to do better and I wanted to thank all of you for your part.