Daily Meditation for April 21, 2023

Gene was excited to share with the faculty something he had learned at the educator’s workshop he attended over the weekend. Imitating what the facilitator had done, Gene printed the word “courage” in big letters on the whiteboard and asked what the core word in the word courage was. Yes, in French: “Coeur”—heart. In Spanish, “corazon” and in Latin, “cor.” Gene then drew an arrow with the prefix “en” on it, pointed it toward courage, and said when we en-courage, we put heart into. He reversed the arrow and wrote “dis” to show that when we discourage, we take heart out of another. Smiling, Gene asked: “So what do you think the most important role for us educators is?” The unanimous response was: “To put heart into our students.” What assignment do you think Gene would give us? Yes! Make all our days “put HEART into days.”

By Lois Wedl, OSB