In just a few short months, I’ll be leading a group of fifty pilgrims to Italy. One of our resting points will be Rome and the Vatican. There, I hope to expose our pilgrims to the various rewarding aspects of our overall journey, including faith, culture and, of course, art.

One of my favorite destinations in the city is the Galleria Borghese, where masterpieces of talent and faith are literally at our fingertipsone such piece being Bernini’s “Daphne & Chloe” (seen here…with little fragile leaves growing form her fingertips and toes…paper-thin stone). Whenever I view it, I wish I could stand with Bernini and simply thank him, reward him for his great work…one of so many throughout the Eternal City.

For some people, it is hard to give a compliment. Why? Perhaps it’s because they feel they are leaving a bit of themselves behind (i.e. when complimenting a success they risk themselves in showing appreciation, in identifying another as contributing something to themselves that they couldn’t have possessed without it being offered by the other). For others, giving a compliment is too costly, simply because it reveals a kind of felt need for the gifts of others to be offered to themselves.

Today, it might serve us to consider the gifts that others are offering to us. These offered gifts enrich us somehow, encourage to seek “beauty”, “righteousness”, and even “the Good”. Those gifts are real blessings to us..we know it…and now, we acknowledge them as such, and compliment, bless their generous sharers.