“For the nights that turn into mornings with friends who become family.” 

This quote, that I remember reading on a greeting card once, could describe a party or two…or three or four…where I have found myself surveying the room and thinking, “Gosh, I love these people!”  And no, it wasn’t because of the late hour or the number of adult beverages I had consumed. It was out of a genuine sense of contentment; a sense of joy; a sense of deep belonging that is often hard to describe. Tribe. Squad. Peeps. Posse. Family. Whatever you want to call it, it is the community, the people that are yours. The people who know you and love you regardless. The people who challenge you to grow. The people who will fiercely fight for you – and potentially with you. At its heart is the art of relationship. The give and take between me and another that helps me to intimately know the other and at the same time learn to know myself. It is a blessing to find your people. And at the same time, we are human and sometimes things happen, words are said, actions are taken, that break up or divide the tribe. The relationship is challenged or weakened due to a variety of circumstances. Sometimes it survives. Sometimes not. 

The psalmist reminds us that this will not happen with my relationship with God. As the psalmist writes: “We are his people”. God counts me as His. I belong to Him just as He belongs to me. He could be surveying “the room” at any point in my life and he could be thinking the same thing I was: Gosh, I love these people! So much so that God not only wants a relationship with me (and you), but seeks one. But I sometimes make choices in word and deed that hurt, exclude, and ostracize. Even when I do things that can break up, hurt, or divide the family, God still offers love. Still claims me as His own. And continually calls me to a hope that calls me to do better. 

It is this unfathomable love from God that anchors me and connects me to that sense of belonging. When I receive it truly and fully into my heart, I am transformed. My perspective moves from self-centered and self-serving to focus on the good of the other. My life is bigger than just me. I belong to something bigger and better than I could ever imagine. Learning to lean into the loving relationships that God surrounds me with through my family and my friends mirrors the kind of relationship God seeks with me. God wants me to know me intimately - as intimately as He wants me to know Him.  And I can only know our God when I spend time with Him and allow Him to reveal to me His Love that is present in our world through me. And you. After all…we are His people. 




Aurea Sadi

Several years ago, my husband and I went on pilgrimage to Medjugorje. I was in the worst physical and spiritual shape of my life, but being a good sheep, I put on an outwardly happy face. In truth, I felt shackled and chained when we arrived in this peaceful village, carrying a burden of unforgiveness that I refused to lay down.

The group that we were travelling with had a planned hike up Mount Križevac, more commonly known as Cross Mountain. At the top of the mountain is a huge cross that was erected to commemorate the 1900th anniversary of Jesus’ crucifixion, and the climb, which is said to take about an hour, is often used to express penance and sorrow for our sinfulness. Some pilgrims climb barefooted over the jagged rocks, praying the rosary and asking for God’s forgiveness as they climb. 

As I joined our group, many of whom were twenty years my senior, I smugly thought I’d have no problem with this climb. I had walking poles, good shoes, determination, and a whole lot of self-reliance. I was going to focus on this event, for which I was carrying unforgiveness, and show the world how strong I was. 

The Stations of the Cross are situated throughout the climb to the top, with the first located very early on in the climb. By the time we reached it, I was breathing heavily. We stopped for a reading and prayer and, to my horror, started climbing again after what seemed like far too short a break.

A climb that should have taken no more than an hour took me almost three. At one point, two women from Ireland came up behind us, one of them smoking, and said ,“I don’t know what you are atoning for, but you are surely going to be blessed.” I knew then I was visibly shedding my burden. 

When we finally reached the top, I was broken. Not in a bad way, but in that heart split open, dirt poured out, love poured in, kind of broken. My husband and I sat in prayer, and I knew then that I was free. Just as in this reading, God was reminding me that He had gifted me with unearned grace … chosen me specifically … and I had been repaying Him by hardening my heart with unforgiveness and hatred. He led me out of slavery and up a mountain to where I could leave my burden at the foot of the cross. I had been chosen to have a personal relationship with Jesus and called to bring that same love to everyone as part of His priestly kingdom. I was free, and free to live in freedom, and as such, was called to be a bridge that would carry others to Him. 

​Our spiritual life is a response to God’s unearned grace which He has freely offered before anything is required. May we always remember that God breaks all chains if we choose to be unshackled.





Sandy Graves