​I will be the first to admit that I did not know what the word “beatitude” meant. I could have probably rattled off most of the beatitudes, since I helped my kids learn them for school. I suppose I saw them as Christian ideals. I never considered them as rules for true happiness. Beatitude simply means happiness, or joy. Bishop Barron’s homily from Sunday really helped me view the Beatitudes in a new way. There are eight Beatitudes in total. Bishop Barron divides them into the four “positive” beatitudes and the four “negative,” or confounding, beatitudes. Here are the positives:

This was the subject of the video teaching Thursday night. On Friday morning, I went through my usual prayer morning prayer routine, which includes praying over the daily Mass readings. The Gospel from Friday was from Mark 3. The passage tells us that Jesus "appointed twelve, whom he also named disciples, that they might be with him . . . ." Mark 3:14.