This is, by far, my favorite month of the year. I wish I could say the reason is that I am squarely in the midst of my Lenten practices. I also wish it was that I had some brilliant ideas for term papers. And yes, the weather is changing and the beginning of daylight savings time is nice, but even these aren’t the real reasons this is the best time of the year. These particular three weeks are so good because it is March Madness!

One of the real pleasures of (still) being a student is that I get to read a lot of things that I would probably never choose to read if a professor wasn’t assigning it. Last week, one of those types of passages came across my desk: a selection from Martin Luther’s “Lectures on Genesis, Chapters 1-5.” Early on in the reading, I came across one of Luther’s references to St. Augustine, and our lack of gratitude in daily life. It is worth sharing the quote at length here:

My life is simple.  I wake up everyone morning.  I eat breakfast.  I hug my family goodbye and then I go to work.  After what feels like an eternity, I finish my work day and head on to some other familial responsibility.  Eventually, I end up in my bed, tired beyond measure, and fall into the abyss of sleep.
God is in there somewhere I just know it.  One of the blessings of the spiritual exercises is that they cultivate an awareness of God in real time, even in the mundane. …