Recently I’ve found myself lacking gratitude in my daily life. During this past spring break, I returned to my pueblo natal (birthplace) of La Paz, Bolivia, to renew my daily commitment to a life of gratitude to God and others. 

After joining my father to support water supply development efforts, I finally came to understand that when depending on one’s environment to survive, basic human needs like water can be seen either as a “given” or a “gift from God.” Taking necessities like water for granted has become an unrecognized privilege to us. Meanwhile, for the world’s materially poor, access to safe water and other necessities often remains an unrealized basic human right. 

Being born to Catholic missionaries in La Paz, I started my life in the Andean highlands. I hadn’t returned since I was a toddler, so this experience was different from what I only vaguely remembered. The people I encountered were especially hospitable despite facing poverty and limited opportunities. One visit in particular impacted me the most. 

On one of our last days, we traveled to the remote village of Cuipa Kahuayo in the Bolivian countryside. The people were celebrating the inauguration of their first-ever community drinking water system. More than 70 families finally had access to safe, spring-fed water in their homes after generations of relying on dirty river flows and contaminated, open wells. 

They received what we take so often for granted. Their sincere thanksgiving to God and reverence toward Mother Earth were woven into the entire inauguration ceremony. 

Toil, sacrifice, local municipal support and significant donations from people of faith and goodwill in the United States via Water Engineers for the Americas and Africa (wefta.net) made the opportunity possible.

The joy each community member shared poured over me like a raging river. I was blessed with a necklace full of colorful flowers and oversized vegetables — potatoes, carrots, turnips and flowers — all produce of the Bolivian high plain Altiplano, representing the life now possible from access to water.  

Witnessing how important this day was to those families and their gratitude opened my eyes to how much I take simple things like safe drinking water for granted. I began to realize how blessed I truly am. 

While talking about gratitude with my Subiaco mentor, Brother Sebastian Richey, I was directed to the Bible passage of 10 lepers healed by Jesus in Luke 17:11-19. In it, only one of the 10 lepers returned to show gratitude to Jesus for cleansing their lives. 

Brother Sebastian explained to me that “the Samaritan, an outcast, recognizes Jesus’ power and expresses gratitude, while the others take their healing for granted. Jesus highlights the importance of acknowledging God’s blessings and how the power of faith can transform us. It should also be a reminder to cultivate a heart of gratitude and help us recognize God’s work in our lives.” 

Ongoing, authentic gratitude and repentance transform our lives, saving us just as the healed Samaritan was in his gratitude and faith in Jesus. 

As a recent graduate of Subiaco Academy — my home away from home these past four years  — I have grown to recognize God’s goodness in my daily life. I am forever thankful for the guidance and support I received from my family, friends, teachers and mentors along my journey at Subiaco. The witness of the monks in their daily lives of community prayer, and in their spiritual guidance of students, are additional causes for my gratitude to God and to them. One of Subiaco’s gifts to me is learning to live in gratitude as a joy-filled discipline, and not just spontaneous reactions to moments when things work out my way. 

I have come to understand that gratitude is a gift of love to be celebrated with joy and shared with others — flowing like water out of our faith in Christ.

Anthony Gehrig will be attending the University of Notre Dame in the fall and recently graduated from Subiaco Academy. St. Patrick Cathedral in Fort Worth, Texas, is his home parish.

“Where there is family, there is love.” Popular quotes like this are often seen framed and hanging on a wall decorating a room, but are frequently neglected. However, this phrase does hold profound and valuable truth. 

Families provide the foundation of society, through which our first encounters with the world around us take place and our understanding of our role and response is shaped. Because God created humanity out of love and designed us for the purpose of sharing love, families are meant to be full of love, care and guidance —  just as Jesus experienced in the Holy Family. For this reason, our Catholic faith teaches us that, "… the family is the 'domestic church' where God's children learn to pray 'as the Church' and to persevere in prayer" (Catechism 2685). 

I was blessed to be raised in a loving and stable family that strove to follow Christian teaching. From celebrating each other's accomplishments to praying and eating together for daily meals, we value love and family togetherness. However, it didn't take many years in my life to realize that so many others were being raised in different situations. 

>I have witnessed friends and classmates grow up in broken, unstable family environments, which impacted their development. Whether it was due to financial stresses, baggage from their own difficult childhoods or other reasons, one or both of their parents couldn’t provide an example of living in a loving relationship with each other and sometimes with their own children. These voids left deep wounds in my peers' lives, negatively impacting their understanding of what a healthy relationship should look like. 

In these unfortunate situations, where young people lack guidance and Christ-focused counsel, they often seek other worldly influences to fill the void, readily available in the form of social media and unhealthy peer pressures.  

Let's face it. Children without a healthy sense of family, in whatever form that may take, yearn for love, acceptance and guidance. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether or not we are ready to respond to God's calling to reach out to these youth in need of a sense of belonging.

Thankfully, we all witness many examples of Christ-inspired people doing just that, meeting a critical need for the individual, while impacting society for the better. At Subiaco Academy, where I attend high school, several Benedictine monks and staff engage in the lives of the students. One inspiring example is Brother Ambrose Fryer, who with his wise and caring counsel, intentionally sets aside time with each of his students at the end of the semester to check in on their well-being and provide prayerful guidance. Such positive role models extend a sense of family to those in need, helping overcome the painful voids too many youth endure.

We can all be family to others in need: the dad who intentionally brings the fatherless brothers in his neighborhood fishing along with his own children, the parents who choose to foster children in their homes, and the teenager who takes time to be present to another hurting youth while playing catch, are just a handful of concrete examples of people being family to others in need, sharing Christ's love.

God's love for us mirrors the love we are called to show others. Our responsibility is to fulfill Jesus' commandment to "love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:34). 

For "where there is family, there is love," and indeed, where there is love, there is God.

Anthony Gehrig will be a senior at Subiaco Academy. St. Patrick Cathedral in Fort Worth is his home parish.

Faith has been a concept I have struggled to grasp throughout my life. 

Ever since I can remember, I had questions about my Catholic faith. When I was younger, I would ask plenty of questions to more fully understand the different lessons and concepts being taught in almost every religion class I took. Slowly but surely, these teachings started to take root in my young mind and shape my outlook and actions. 

Certain stories stuck with me. Growing up there was one I often struggled with, the story of “doubting” Thomas. I often felt Thomas justifiably had reason to doubt and had every right to want to see real evidence of Jesus, who had just been crucified. The lesson from this story, which is to have faith and believe even what we have not seen, did not make much sense to me. I knew that if I was in Thomas’ position, I too would have very likely doubted my fellow disciples and unfortunately responded the same way Thomas did. This was before I started building my faith in God. 

From a very young age, I was fortunate enough to know God and see God’s beauty all around me. God greatly blessed me with a wonderful family and a unique beginning. 

I was born to parents who were Catholic lay missionaries with Maryknoll at the time. Because of this, my birthplace (as well as my siblings) was in La Paz, Bolivia. My parents served there for seven years and during that time they had my sister, brother and me. My parents lived in exceptionally humble conditions and worked hard on building libraries and providing new water systems for villages without access to potable water. 

From day one I couldn’t ask for better role models and examples of Christ in my life. My family decided to move back to the United States when I was very young so unfortunately, I have very little recollection of my life before returning to America. 

Throughout my childhood and youth, I have been privileged to experience a Catholic education. It was in my religion classes that I especially was able to learn and grow spiritually with my friends. I thank my Catholic school education for developing my faith and setting the foundation of my relationship with God. Once I reached high school, I decided to depart from my home in Texas and attend Subiaco Academy, like my father and grandfather, which is where my faith in God was strengthened more than ever. 

At Subiaco, I have the unique opportunity to observe, and even to a small degree, participate in aspects of the Benedictine monastic life lived so authentically by the monks of Subiaco Abbey. From evening vespers to witnessing lived values of community, hospitality and “ora et labora” (prayer and work), the Benedictine life of faith is ever present. 

There seems to be a special, distinct spiritual atmosphere here that I would have never imagined I’d find in the middle of rural Arkansas. While at Subiaco, I have learned countless valuable life lessons from many different monks. I’ve felt impacted by the humble lifestyle the monks experience in their daily service to God and to others both within their community and beyond. Having the opportunity to live beside and learn from the Christlike example of the Benedictine monks at Subiaco is truly a blessing and inspiration as to how my faith in God can continue to deepen. 

With the academy being one of the abbey’s primary apostolates, the students and monks benefit greatly from each other. An example of this is the rugged cross-country course in the nearby abbey ridges. Under the leadership of our cross-country coach Brother Raban, we run a course winding its way up and down the steep hills of the ridges called “The Rule.” The most challenging steep incline of the course is appropriately named “Chapter 7,” which is the chapter in the Rule of St. Benedict that is long and about humility. From running “The Rule” I feel that I have strengthened my faith by learning about different aspects of the Rule of St. Benedict and learning to push through and trust God even when I want to quit or am doubting myself.

Looking back, my faith journey through this relatively short life I’ve lived so far could be compared to the steep rises and falls of that Subiaco cross-country course through the ridges. There have been times when my relationship with God felt non-existent or extremely one-sided.

During these times, I struggled to have faith in God, and I deeply questioned what God wanted from me. Thankfully, over time I found that to end this unpleasant rollercoaster I was experiencing of ups and downs in my faith, I needed to start completely trusting in God’s beautiful plan and stop basing my faith in God merely off of what logically makes sense to me, like the example of “doubting” Thomas. 

God has given me countless reasons to hope and believe in him and his loving presence in our world. It is my responsibility to have faith in God and build a strong relationship with him, inspiring a life of caring for others. Ultimately, “without faith, it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6). 

Anthony Gehrig is a junior at Subiaco Academy. St. Patrick Cathedral in Fort Worth, Texas, is his home parish.