The Encouraging Thomist

John the Forerunner Icon Second Sunday of Advent Isaiah 40:1-11 Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 2 Peter 3:8-15a Mark 1:1-8 I. Hope.    Hope is such a hard thing to define or describe  unless you yourself have experienced it first hand.  And, for a lot of us,  hope is something that we actually cannot experience   unless we find ourselves in the darkest parts of our lives. It is difficult to describe hope to someone who has always had it good  and has never encountered any difficulty.   But for those whose every day,  every hour,   every minute,    every second is a struggle,     hope is as fundamental and as essential as breathing. Those who have been to the depths of despair  are truly the best teachers about hope.   If you were to travel to poor parts of the world,   such as going to the beautiful but poor region of Appalachia,   or who go to the invisible slums of rural America,    or even those who travel out of country to countries classified as "3rd world"     you will undoubtedly e