Lift Up Our Hearts in Hope

Editor’s note: Throughout July, we’re hosting 31 Days with St. Ignatius, a month-long celebration of Ignatian spirituality. In addition to the calendar of Ignatian articles found here, posts on dotMagis this month will explore the theme of “Hope Through the Twists and Turns.”

The First Communicants gathered to receive the Body of Christ for the first time. “Lift up your hearts,” the priest said, referring to the familiar words in the preface to the Eucharistic prayer. “Do you know what that means?” He instructed the congregation to join in the physical feeling of taking in a breath and lifting our hearts. When we lift our hearts to God, we leave behind the troubles, annoyances, and preoccupations of everyday life and reach for something higher and deeper. The higher thing is the hope of things to come, the inheritance of faith, and the knowledge that true rewards extend beyond this life to the next.

Hope Is a Virtue

That moment may have introduced the children to the concept that hope is a virtue rooted in faith. Hope was defined in the Baltimore Catechism as, “trust that God, who is all powerful and faithful to His promises, will in His mercy give us eternal happiness and the means to obtain it.” Hope is reliant on God’s mercy and points to the future of what God promises: the confident assurance of salvation.

Hope flashed in the eyes and hearts of the children. At age 7, 8, or 10, they cannot know how their faith will be tested or how their hope may flicker during difficult times or in the bright glare of worldly temptations. The threshold of First Eucharist, like weddings, ordinations, and other sacraments, reminds us of our inheritance through faith, hope, and love.

In hope there is freedom regardless of life circumstances—the freedom to seek and respond to God’s voice and the freedom to live in unity with God. It is the knowledge of our inheritance that one day God will renew all things and, as faithful ones, we will be invited into his eternal kingdom.

Hope Through the Twists and Turns

Clinging to hope through the twists and turns of life can be tough. The events we do not control can dim our hopes. We may hope for a better world and lament that children are dying from poverty and war. We face chronic difficulties and unending trials, but hope joined with prayer helps us deal with life’s burdens of illness, loss, and disappointment.

Cynthia Bourgeault, Episcopal priest and author, writes that hope lives “at the innermost point in us” and calls hope a “pulse of truth that sends us forth…to abide in the flow of Mercy no matter what outer storms assail us.” (Mystical Hope: Trusting in the Mercy of God, 86–87) Hope will lead us in the direction of the divine.

Anchored in Hope

When Pope Francis passed away during Easter week, the faithful stood in sorrow. Waiting with patience was required to see who would succeed our beloved Pope Francis.

Christ makes all things new, as he shows us again and again. Hope was renewed soon after the white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. The world met Pope Leo XIV, who affirmed his beliefs in three things: unity, loving care for the least and rejected, and courageous dialogue with the contemporary world. His words were anchored in hope: “Together, as one people, as brothers and sisters, let us walk towards God and love one another.” (Homily at Mass for the Beginning of the Pontificate of Pope Leo XIV, 18 May 2025)

We lift up our hearts.

Today in 31 Days with St. Ignatius, Peggy Weber finds A Thin Place at the Library. #31DayswithIgnatius