The Gift of August

Letting go is not the end. Perhaps it is the beginning of something even more beautiful.

August 2026 will not soon be forgotten, but not for the way we thought or planned.

August has given us a gift…a gift of letting go. Letting go of plans that had been in the making all year. Letting go of a vision of how things were "supposed" to unfold. Letting go, more than once, through pain, through sorrow, through change none of us chose or would have chosen.

Maybe you know this kind of August, too (or any other season of loss).

When we have been the ones praying for something so good and holy for years…and we just feel so sure about it, we never expected what was next. Then it gets snatched away, like a thief in the night, like a cruel joke. Heartbreak and change are thrust upon us in ways never anticipated. To change course abruptly when it just does not make sense…what were we missing? Maybe nothing…maybe everything. And not just our plans, but the plans of others that made plans because we planned.

So now we are carrying grief, uncertainty, loneliness, frustration, and a cross we never saw coming. But, there is hope…

"Jesus will never let the cross crush you; on the contrary, it will lift you up toward heaven. It is no longer you who will carry it; it is the cross, which will carry you." ~Fr. Jean C. J. d’Elbée

We have experienced deep loss and grief before. And sometimes, after we have been hurting for a while, something else quietly starts to happen. The pain begins taking up more and more of our attention. We think about what is not right or just. What we wish were different. What we wish we would have known. What we are still waiting for God to do.

And without even realizing it, the painful thing can begin to feel like the whole story.

That is what August has been.

I will not tell you to look on the bright side. I will not try to convince you your pain should not hurt. And I certainly will not tell you that if you just trusted God enough, you wouldn't be struggling so much.

But I will tell you this: it is often the hardest things we carry that end up forming us the most. Grief and pain strip away what was easy to hide or fake. In comfort, we can wear a version of ourselves we have purposefully curated. In the cross, there is nowhere left to hide. What we believe, who we trust, what actually holds us up when the plans fall apart…that gets revealed in the letting go. We do not usually choose the things that shape us most. They arrive uninvited and unexpected, then we are left to decide who we will become in their presence.

I am learning to hold the pain honestly, while also making room for everything else God is still giving: His presence. His grace. His goodness. His consolations. The people who love and pray for us. The small, easy-to-miss moments of beauty still scattered through the days. And yes, even real joy…what a gift.

You do not have to wait for the painful thing to disappear before you begin living again.

• bring your real thoughts and emotions to the Lord, instead of feeling like you need to hide them or fix them first

• recognize the patterns of thinking that may be intensifying your suffering

• practice acceptance and surrender around what you cannot control

• notice the goodness still present without minimizing what hurts

• grow in gratitude, hope, trust, and connection with God

• begin making intentional room for joy, even in a difficult and imperfect season

• stay close Christ through to the sacraments and to His Blessed Mother through prayer

  
  

It can be healing to say:

This hurts. God is still here. I wish this were different. There is still goodness in my life today. I don't know how this story is going to turn out. I can ask God for the grace I need to live this day well.

Maybe there is something you have been carrying too, something you have been waiting to resolve before you can finally feel okay again.

You may not be able to change everything that is causing you pain right now. But you can learn to meet God there. And little by little, you can begin letting your pain become part of your story…not the whole story.

That has been the gift of this August: letting all the much anticipated things go...by acknowledging the loss, being formed by what we did not choose, and still trusting in God's plan and in His hand that holds us as we move forward.