Fr. Mike Schmitz

He's just talking about, I love you, I love you, you're great, you encourage me.

through you words that you don't even necessarily have in you.

In fact, with all the struggles he had with the Corinthians, I mean, gosh, think about that, or the Galatians, or even the Ephesians.

And that's the thing too, is like right when we read the Lord's word, that he's giving us words that we don't even have sometimes.

The Thessalonians, he is just, I can't wait to see you.

That if I could say, if I could pray a prayer of repentance, it would sound like this, but I don't have those words.

You're my favorites.

Why?

Because you received God's word.

You're saying yes to it.

And so I can pray them because God has given us the words.

Now, I know so many of us, we might be God's favorites because we need his love more than anyone else does.

It's just so incredible.

We might be God's favorites because he pours his love on us because we need it more.

But in this case, St.

Paul, he is just so encouraged.

He is so encouraged by the faith of the Thessalonians that it just, you can't walk away from this reading without kind of a smile on your face.

One of the pieces that marks St.

Paul's letter here that we just heard is he says, you know, you know that when we came among you,

we were not only willing to share with you the gospel of God, but also our very selves.