The gift in our hand - Joan Chittister osb from Aspects of the Heart

To know our gifts is to know our role in life. We are what we are. But the gift of self unfolds as we go, often slowly, always with surprise. It can take years before it becomes clear—the real gift that is hidden within us. Finding the gifts that God has given you takes courage; it takes risk; it takes exploration; it takes failure as we stumble from one arena to the other. But in the end what I get back is the wholeness of myself.

We all come with a gift in our hand designed to make life a better place. The only question is whether we spend it on others or only on ourselves.

It is learning that the gifts we have been given are given for the rest of the human community that makes us more human ourselves. Everyone does some things better than other things. What I have to give is always that one thing that is most needed in every situation because no one else can give it. The obligation is to pour it out like oil on the head of the universe.

Don’t be afraid to follow the dreams of your heart. They are the sign of what should be, of what you must do to be whole, of what you down deep really believe the world must taste to be true to itself.

Without you and me and our little gift, the world will never be filled up. Asked to write a letter to the London Times on ‘What’s wrong with the world?’ GK Chesterton wrote, ‘Dear Sirs, I am. Yours truly, GK Chesterton.’ Clearly, what we are asked to give is only what we are—and that is more than nothing.