St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians starts off, as his letters tend to do, with words of thanks and praise. We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the holy ones because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. He will fuss with them later but he wanted to remind them that they had a good foundation on which to improve. That is a good practice as we think about ourselves and the Church. Instead of starting with the problems and deficiencies begin by listing the things we are grateful for as the basis of conversion.
