One day, alone on a mountain, St. Francis came across a solitary jonquil blooming through the rocks.

He sat and marveled at its beauty and realized that this is what is meant to glorify God: Simply to be what we are intended to be.

Maybe you’ve known this all along but only in recent years have I realized that Jesus went to the outcasts and the outsiders not because he felt he had to do it but because he loved to be with them.

What an amazing thing!

We are called to be followers not because we have to please God but because God seeks to please us.

God knows that it is in sharing love that we discover what it means to be created in God’s image.

Surely our blooming is a beautiful thing for God but it is also God’s gift to us.