After 12 years and 62 issues as a contributor, including three years and 19 issues serving as both editor of Great Lakes Bay Catholic and the marketing and admissions coordinator for the Office of Catholic Schools, I returned to serving full-time in the Office of Catholic Schools in mid-May.

This ministry has been, in every way, a gift. It has been the greatest privilege to share these stories—your stories—and I pray that they have impacted your hearts as they have impacted mine. I have always believed that Stories are sacred.

In this time, many lessons have been etched on my heart:  Attaining holiness is not an independent sport. God in his infinite creativity can work and move in myriad ways, through joy and grief, beauty and barrenness. No one is ever too lost for the Good Shepherd. Every soul has its song that it is destined to sing, and God desires to teach it to us, if we have ears to hear. And the Body of Christ has stories flowing through its very veins, from the parables of Jesus to the lives of the saints to the witness of his pilgrim Church on earth.

I have one last story I would like to share.

During the Elevation at Mass, when the priest holds up the consecrated Host that has become the Body of Christ, I point to the Blessed Sacrament and whisper to my children: “Look! There is Jesus who loves you.” That is, I think, the most essential truth for our young children to know about Mass. I pray that one day they will say, “I fell in love with the Blessed Sacrament from the beginning – and by the mercy of God never have fallen out again,” as J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, describing the Blessed Sacrament as “the one great thing to love on earth.” (Letters 250 and 43)

One Sunday a few years ago, the priest elevated the Sacred Host and I began whispering those words to my middle son:  “Look! There is Jesus—” He declared, with all the enthusiasm and confidence of a two-year-old: MINE!

I pray with that moment often. And this is my prayer for myself, and all of you: may we see the Eucharistic Lord and have the desire, passion and conviction to boldly seek him with childlike faith. Then, may we be granted the grace to bring the Lord into a world aching for love … and for stories of hope.

Thank you for reading Great Lakes Bay Catholic.

To Jesus through Mary,

Danielle