Today’s Gospel offers a contrast to many of the messages we hear in our society today. If we were to accept uncritically the “get ahead” messages of our culture, we would think that happiness means having money, being successful, having many possessions, and so on. When we think this way, we are not unlike the people who heard Jesus teach on the day that he taught the Beatitudes. The crowd that day also associated happiness with material possessions and status.

Talk as a family about what it means to be happy or to be blessed. Make a list of traits that you would associate with a happy person. Then read together today’s Gospel, Matthew 5:1-12a. Reflect on Jesus’ description of happiness. Think about what each of the Beatitudes might have in common and write a family summary of the Beatitudes. Post the summary in a special place as a reminder of what your family will consider “true happiness.”

Conclude by praying together prayers of petition based on the Beatitudes, e.g., “We pray that we will be peacemakers who seek to get along with other people even when this is difficult. We pray to the Lord.” All respond: “Lord, hear our prayer.”

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