As we in India touch the seventh month of lockdown effected by the Covid Pandemic, we could be frustrated that it has in many ways paralyzed our normality. These frustrations could either drive us to despair, or it could trigger in us a resilience that gives birth to a creativity that fulfils what Jesus says: “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old." (Matthew 13:51-53) So, the question is whether we have this treasure chest from which we can draw out the old and new things to keep us going when the wells around us run dry. To me this treasure chest is nothing but ‘being anchored in our faith in God’ and ‘tapping into the potential He has vested in each one of us’ - the potential to ‘stay productive, grateful, prayerful and hopeful’. Staying productive would mean, looking for new ways of doing things, learning new skills, honing one’s hobbies, creating new platforms for expending our energies be it turning your home into an office and school (without of course losing the sense of home), or your church into a broadcast station for evangelisation, or the virtual world into the new normal way of doing and achieving what one would in the physical world, no matter how vested it is with its own limitations. We can’t just throw our hands up or throw in the towel and resign to chance. We are called to create our destiny especially when faced with this setback that challenges our very existence. How productive are you? Yes, there are many things that we can complain about. But we should remind ourselves of what someone realised: ‘I complained I had no shoes till I saw someone who had no feet’. Instead of complaining of the things we don’t have or cannot do, can we become aware of what we do have and can still do, and so know what to be grateful for? I for one cannot be blind to the providence of God who came to us during this lockdown, through some of you dear parishioners who provided us with food, and some who came and cleaned the campus, watered the plants, brought us provisions, animated the choir, put up backdrops for mass, checked on our wellbeing, supported us with finances, and through some of our domestic staff who made themselves available to ensure that the wheels of our institution kept rolling. What are you grateful for? When we learn to be grateful, we will automatically become prayerful. Our prayer in these times should therefore be that of thankfulness, and at the same time that of hopefulness. The month of September is permeated with the presence of Our Blessed Mother whose birthday gives us reason to be joyful, thankful and hopeful. In Mother Mary we have a powerful intercessor whom we can rely on because she is a very righteous woman and is in heaven, and so she is an ideal prayer partner. If a prayer of a righteous man avails much in this life as the apostle James tells us in his Epistle (James 5:16), then the prayer of Jesus’ mother is going to avail even more. So, it makes sense to ask her to pray for us and to be our prayer partner. Let us then while imploring the intercession of our Blessed Mother, also assist one another with our prayers to God for each other, and be ready and generous to help one another. In this we will discover the secret of staying hopeful. I invite you to be anchored in faith so as to stay productive, grateful, prayerful, and hopeful. ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ (Romans 8:31) In this pandemic crisis let us take strength from the word of God spoken through St. Paul: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).