After going over the first reading a couple of times I realized the same stanza was sticking out to me. “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” I re-read this over and over again. It is always said to us in classes “God is omnipresent,” but when I read this it really made me think about my daily life.

I realized I can get really worked up over something someone has said to me, or I can become really upset at things that have happened in my life that are negative. Sometimes I find it really hard to accept that God is “over all and through all and in all.” At the same time, I realized that we all have free will. I like to think about it like this: God gives us the knowledge of what’s right and what’s wrong. When someone does something really awful, it’s important to realize that God was not in that act; God was on the other shoulder trying to steer that person in the right direction, and they chose to ignore it.

Even though this is a bit backwards, from here I worked my way up through the passage: “I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace,” If we are living our lives according to this, God can be in all of our actions and in all of our thoughts. He wants so badly to be a part of our lives. We have to open the door.

On this same note, I found the gospel to be a bit coded, but definitely worth paying attention to in every day life. For me, Jesus here is asking us ‘How can you see all of things like the weather and the rain, yet you can’t see the importance of my presence?” What I really took away from this was the importance of incorporating Jesus into our everyday lives. I know I can become so caught up in what I’m doing with school and activities that I forget the most important thing: my relationship with Jesus. I think he is really calling us to evaluate our priorities. When I went to Catholic camp growing up they always gave us the acronym JOY: Jesus, Others, You for what your priorities in life should be. While this is a hard list to follow, I think its importance is invaluable.