Daily Meditation for January 22, 2024

Our greatest gifts are those which, perhaps, at this very moment, we are unaware we possess. For example, in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard tells of a 22-year-old woman, blind since birth, who was given the gift of sight through surgery at age 22. After surgery, when she opened her eyes, she was overwhelmed with the beauty of what she saw, and she kept her eyes closed for the next two weeks. When she finally had the courage to open her eyes again, she repeated over and over, “Oh, God, how beautiful, how beautiful.” Our most precious gifts are those we are unaware of during an ordinary day and we take them for granted until sickness or an accident awakens us to their value. Let us not allow our gifts and blessings of body and spirit be ignored or become commonplace. Let this prayer fall from our lips daily: “Be forever grateful.”

By Joyce Iten, OSB