Today's Saint: Gregory the Great

The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things.
~St. Gregory the Great

This statement of St. Gregory reminds me of the second reading we heard at Mass this past Sunday from James (1:17-18, 21b-22, 27), who advises us to "Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves." This exhortation immediately brought my dear friend Kathe Nowowiejski to my mind because she's one of the most faithful doers of the word I've very known. She often laments her inability to speak eloquently of the things of God, but, as I often reassure her, she doesn't need all those fine and lovely words because she is living the Word. And that is of much greater importance. Kathe gives birth to the Incarnate Word all day long through her countless acts of love and kindness. I am but one of many grateful recipients of her boundless goodness. One of the greatest things that Kathe's love works in me is an increase in my desire to serve others. And it's not just that I want to love and serve more, I actually do it because like begets like, love begets love. Ah, marvelous!

Thank you, dear Lord, for my friend Kathe, and for all those who, like her, show us how to love as you did. Amen.