Here I am Lord. I arrived at the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) in Alabama. With faith, all things are possible, and there’s no coincidence. Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Bernadette Soubirous. At the end of her life, she said, her job was “to be sick.” Those three words inspired me. I wrote many reflections by beginning with the line, “to be sick for the Lord.”  Back in September 2023, I went to Lourdes to thank her and Our Lady for giving me the great privilege to be able to publish my first book by Ave Maria Press at the University of Notre Dame. Thus, on her feast day, she brought me here to EWTN - it’s the largest religious media in the world, to talk about being a hope hunter. The house that I am staying in is called “Immaculate.”  Our Lady of Lourdes revealed to St. Bernadette that “I am the Immaculate Conception.”  Here is another bonus story. I had an hour's dinner with Fr. Mitch Pacwa tonight. He likes to go hunting. So when I told him about being a hope hunter, he asked me, “How do you hang your prize, and how do you eat them?”  I answered after each of my Hope Hunter trips that my prize to hang on the wall was the Crucifix. How I eat them is at the Eucharist. It’s the source and summit of my Christian life, and my heart is full of joy, and it’s very satisfying. Dear friends:  “Always be ready to give a reason for your hope.” (1 Pet 3:15).  St. Thomas Aquinas defines hope as a theological virtue by which man, relying on God’s strength, seeks an arduous but possible good. I hope we all learn to become a hope hunter.
St. Bernadette, pray for us and our world. 

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