Recently, I was traveling to the Poconos and was amused to see a sign that said, “Bear Crossing.” I thought, “How strange to see such a sign! But, hey, it’s the Poconos and black bears are all around us.” In fact, when I came home from this vacation, I met an adult black bear sniffing the luggage near my car. I had gone inside no more than 30 seconds with an armload of packages only to return to the scene. After screaming and clapping my hands, the bear looked up at me and slowly walked into the woods!
I could not help remember this event when I came across an article from Vatican news regarding Pope Leo XIV. It said, “In his off-the-cuff remarks, spoken in English, the Pope said the 2025 Holy Year ‘inspires us all and invites us all to look for hope, but also to be signs of hope.’ The pope added. “How important it is that each and every baptized person feel himself or herself called by God to be a sign of hope in the world today.” The article continued by stating: “He expressed his hopes that ‘all of us together will continue to walk united as brothers and sisters to praise our God, to recognize that everything we have and everything we are, is a gift from God, and to place those gifts at the service of others.’”1
The phrase “looking for hope” got me thinking. Hope is all around us, but we are often blind to its workings. So, you might wonder, “Where can you find hope?” One place of hope comes from allowing others to love you. In today’s world of “I don’t need anyone,” hope seems to be forgotten. But, by surrendering to another and allowing them to love you as you are, hope is born. If this is true regarding human relationships, how true it must be with God! He loves us in our brokenness and our imperfections and calls us forth despite them to follow him. This is the ultimate prospect of hope!
Another place to find hope is to live a life filled with gratitude. Being grateful for everything allows you to focus on another. Gratitude is strongly connected to humility, which is the foundation of all virtues. Humility announces, “I am a creature! I am not God!” Gratitude declares that everything is a gift given by God. It allows you to look upward to find Him. Finding Him in all things is what hope thrives on!
I began this article talking about a Bear Crossing sign which reminded me of Pope Leo’s wish for all of us to be a sign of God’s love in this world. A smile, a gesture of kindness, are simple signs that can bring others hope. Be the sign in our world of hope! Be a light to others of hope! Wear a sign by your words and actions that reads, “Hope Crossing!”
1https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-05/pope-leo-xiv-africa-day-pilgrimage-blessing-vatican-basilica.html
By Sister Geralyn Schmidt, SCC, Special to The Witness
