What is the basis for your hope?

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Have you heard of the Gift of Fortitude?

The human virtue of fortitude gives us the strength to do good even in spite of difficulty and danger. The Gift of Fortitude however ensures that we finish whatever we start, no matter how impossible it may seem, even after death, if needed.
Yet furthermore man’s mind is moved by the Holy Ghost, in order that he may attain the end of each work begun, and avoid whatever perils may threaten. This surpasses human nature: for sometimes it is not in a man’s power to attain the end of his work, or to avoid evils or dangers, since these may happen to overwhelm him in death. But the Holy Ghost works this in man, by bringing him to everlasting life, which is the end of all good deeds, and the release from all perils. A certain confidence of this is infused into the mind by the Holy Ghost Who expels any fear of the contrary. It is in this sense that fortitude is reckoned a gift of the Holy Ghost. (http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3139.htm)
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This is my source of hope.
 
I really like the premise of WH40K in that even in the bleakest of futures, even with the Emperor of Man’s corpse enthroned in a polluted Earth, even with the whole galaxy and its gods against mankind, man still fought.

And nobody can fight without hope.
 
My hope comes from a combination of my experiences and those of other people. There have been times when I felt hopeful and times when I felt hopeless. People told me that where there is life, there is hope.

So far, that has been true. No matter how dark, terrifying, painful or close to death I’ve been, those things passed and my life and outlook improved. And people have endured far worse than me.

There’s no reason to think that I can’t also endure and come out the other side. As long as I live and maintain hope, I have a good chance of either my situation or perspective improving. The more of life I experience, the more often that happens.

Even people in unbelievable circumstances, when they maintained hope, have come through to better times. I try to follow their example.
 
With work, I primarily fight out of duty. Beyond that, hope has pretty much been burned out of my life.
 
Just a reminder though: despair, the absence of hope, is the most serious sin anybody can commit. Murder, genocide, rape, what have you, none of them is more serious than despair. This is because you cut yourself off from the mercy of God. It is the sin against the Holy Spirit.

St Isidore said: “To commit a crime is to kill the soul, but to despair is to fall into hell.” That is why in Dante’s Inferno the gate of Hell has the inscription: “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.”
 
Wm777 said:
wishful thinking is something unattainable, like a regret, where one might say “I wish I hadn’t done that…”
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Wishful thinking takes us closer to the spirit of the Ungrateful One, who was an angelic leader yet he wanted to more. Wishful thinking links to past, present and future in an impossible - you cannot change the past, the present is illusory under your control, the future is always unknown. So you get stuck three ways in an emotional hence deep connection.
Hope is not about the future being better but about struggle. Like making steps. Making steps today and hopefully tomorrow.
Hope is action and movement, hence life.
Wishful thinking is like a prison hence absence of life but not death. More like a coma.
Do you remember when you were ill and feeling sick and having to perform tasks? Did you worry about what would happen next? No, just struggling and praying you don’t fall what you are doing when doing it. That is hope.
Wishful thinking is being sick and being forced to stay in bed because you are sick. As a metaphor I mean.
Now most prayers transcend these two categories because there is usually a mixture in wishful thinking and hope in one’s prayer. And that is the miracle of prayer, transcending being stuck in your self-sorrow and also transcending pure personal effort by asking God’s Assistance.
The basis of my hope is overcoming both hope and wishful thinking and build a honest relationship with God that I will pray to be a good one.
 
Easter is a time of hope… unless you are this guy:

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But seriously, without Jesus Christ, we are scarcely better off than that snowman in early spring.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. (John 3:16)
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I need that sign over my office door.

This Easter season, hope is something rather lacking.
 
My DH has had a trying relationship with his mother who lives in another state and left him with his grandparents around age two… she had another family. His father left at that time also and had another family on the other coast of the country. So it hasn’t been nurturing… I have been praying for years for them to have some kind of relationship before one of them dies…
Recently she has come into his life and wants to relocate in this area (she’s 92!)
I’m not sure what is going to happen–who can foretell the future? But, they have a relationship of sorts.
What I have been thinking and thanking God lately for is his perfect TIMING… everything is done in HIS TIME. We often try to push and pull to make things happen for us at what we feel is perfect timing… I didn’t tell you that we have been looking to move closer to our children in another state and just never have found a suitable house…though we have put money down and made several LONG trips to visit… Now, it seems something else is happening. Like I said, I’m not sure what, but God is…
I just have to trust that he has my best interests at heart and it will be done in perfect timing…
Does that sound too simple?
 
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