Summary
St. Paul describes Hope as “an anchor for the soul.” In this talk, Olivia Spears uses this powerful image to give us a deeper understanding of Hope and offers practical tips for cultivating this virtue in our lives so that when storms come we can remain rooted in the Lord.
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Reflective Study Guide Questions
“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.”
Hebrews 6:19
1. Where do you “cast your anchor”? How do you try to rely upon yourself rather than on God? Where do you struggle to relinquish control and truly surrender to God’s care?
2. When storms come, do you have hope that keeps you steady? How can you strengthen your relationship with Jesus so that you can be grounded in the heart of God?
3. What habits of consolation that you can maintain during seasons of desolation? Which habits would like you to work to develop this Advent?
4 . Who in your life encourages Hope? What saints can you turn to for their prayers and example?
Text: Making Hope An Anchor In Your Life
Hi, everyone. I’m Olivia Spears, and I’m so thankful to be with you today for this session, all about hope in Advent. Hope is a central theme of the Advent season and a central theme of the Christian life. So today, we just get to explore that a little more and take some time to pause and really reflect on what hope looks like in our souls and what that looks like practically lived out.
Opening Prayer
So, let’s first pray and ask the Lord to increase the hope in our hearts. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you for being the best Father who always keeps His promises. Lord, we ask you to renew hope in our hearts today. Lord, you know those places in our hearts, those situations that feel hopeless to us right now. And so, we invite you to come with your healing touch, we invite you to come with your goodness and kindness. Would you remind us here in these places why we can be hopeful, why we can place our trust in you and believe in your faithfulness. Lord, we love you, and we want to return that faithfulness back to you. And so, we first start by saying, Jesus, we hope in you, we trust in you, and we love you, and we ask all these things in your holy name, Jesus. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Where To Cast Our Anchor
So, one of my favorite metaphors for hope is an anchor. And this is actually given to us from sacred scripture. It tells us that hope is an anchor. And so, it’s worthwhile to consider the characteristics of an anchor and what those teach us about hope, what is an anchor like, what’s its function, and what does that mean for us in relation to the virtue of hope in our walk with the Lord, particularly during Advent. And so, one of the things, the first things, that we acknowledge about an anchor is that it is only good if you cast it, right? And so, if we’re in a boat, in water, an anchor will serve no purpose unless it’s cast. So, if hope is an anchor, then that means that we get to choose where to cast our anchor, where we place our hope.
Now, one of the trickiest places to cast an anchor is actually close to shore. This is because there’s lots of rocks, and undergrowth trees may have fallen in. There are a lot of things on which an anchor can get snagged, and it can either ruin the anchor, or the anchor can’t function to its fullest capacity. So, it’s actually quite silly to cast an anchor close to shore. Now, this is a challenge for us right off the bat, because how often do we want to place our hope next to where there is perceived safety, right? We like to place our hope where we can see the shoreline, where we can calculate, “Yeah, I can swim that far if I need to. If things get that bad, I can swim that far. I can survey the land here. I feel like I have some control here.” Right? Does anybody else do that? But that actually gets us into a world of trouble, and it’s actually not what we’re called to as Christians.
The book of Hebrews says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen, which means that hope is not really hope if we’re casting our anchors where we still have our hands wrapped around it, where we still have a full grasp of control or self-reliance. So, in reality, the best place to cast our anchors is in the wide, open, deep waters. It is there that an anchor can do its job for us, which we’ll talk more about in a moment. And this is scary for us, this is a conviction, because that means that we have to let go of all the ways that we rely upon ourselves, and we have to trust that the Lord will take care of us, and that hope will keep us anchored come what may on those stormy waters where we cannot see everything. So, hope, in reality, stretches us.
You know, there’s that old adage that says, “A ship is safest at harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.” And how true is that in the Christian life! Hope stretches us beyond our capacity, beyond what we’re able to do ourselves. Okay. And so, the second thing about anchors is that they’re not very pretty, right? They’re not fragile. And sometimes I think we can think of hope as like a nice virtue, a sweet virtue. But really, I like to say that hope is gritty. Hope is really a strong, fortified virtue. And this is why, you know, an anchor, if you’ve ever lifted an anchor, it takes effort. They’re heavy. And so, to lift and cast an anchor, you’re probably going to get sweaty. You’ve got to put forth some labor. And so it is with hope.
God Keeps His Promises
Whenever we’re choosing to cast our anchors, hopefully every day, into the deep waters of the heart of God, it’s going to take some work, because there will be waves around us that threaten to steal our confidence in Him. But they need not, and that’s what the virtue of hope is for. But it does take our active participation. So, hope is a gritty virtue. The other beautiful thing about hope is that when we hope, we make a choice to believe God, we make a choice to believe God. And this is where the hope of the people of Israel are so inspiring, especially as we journey through this season of Advent, is that they believed God from the time of Genesis.
In chapter 3, He promised to send us a Savior, and for years and years and years, they believed God. Now, they faltered like we do, because they’re human and fallen and sinful. But overall, they held their hope for the Messiah. Are we going to do the same? Are we going to hold on and hold fast to our hope that Jesus is who He says He is, and that God does what He says He’s going to? This is the great gift and comfort of Christmas, is that we know that He does, we know that God keeps His promises, we know that He is faithful to us to the end, and that He holds nothing back of Himself, but gives us everything we need.
And so, when we cast our anchor of hope into the heart of God, we plant our flag on team God, and say, “I choose to believe God even if nobody else is believing Him, even if everybody else has given up hope, even if everything around me just looks like it’s beyond help and beyond salvation,” right? Which we all have, those times in our life. This is where our hope gets stretched, where we get to train those muscles of virtue. We say, “No, I don’t care. I’m still casting my anchor of hope in the Lord. I am still planting my flag here. I am choosing to believe God no matter what.” And, friends, this is holiness, this is what the saints did every day, and we get to do the same every single day, wake up and say, “No, Lord, I choose you.” When I’m feeling like I’ve waited long enough, when I’m feeling like I really need to take the reins back into my own hands in order for this situation to be okay, when that relationship looks like it’s just destined to be painful my whole life, when this dream that I’ve had in my heart just feels overlooked or ignored, we get to wake up and still say, “Lord, that may be how things look, or that may be how I’m feeling today, but I’m still going to choose to hope in you. I am still going to place my hope in the fact that you are good and kind and faithful. So, help me trust you more, Lord.” And this is the virtue of hope lived in our hearts, and that, friends, is where so much fruit is born in our souls to learn how to live with an unshakeable hope.
An Anchor To Keep Us Grounded
The next thing I want us to think about anchors and what it can teach us about hope is the function of an anchor, right? The function of an anchor is to keep the boat in place, right? And so, whether it’s on calm waters, you know, you can put your anchor in and just enjoy the view around you without having to worry about, you know, steering the boat or powering it. And then, of course, when storms come and the boat is tossed by waves, an anchor can keep you steady. And like we’ve been talking about, this is where our hope is tested, right? Is when those storms and those waves come, but an anchor keeps us grounded. And so, when we’re grounded in the heart of God, then we know that we have nothing to fear, because Jesus is Emmanuel, He is God with us, and He is in our boat, like He is in the gospels with the disciples.
He’s in the boat, and so we don’t have to be afraid, and we can have great faith. And so, this function of the anchor of keeping us secure once again returns us to the fact that when we choose to cast our anchor in the heart of Jesus, we’re actually allowing the veil between He and us to lift. Because when we hope, all of the false pretenses, all of the masks, all of our inflated senses of self, those have to fall away. Those have to fall away when our anchor is cast in the deep waters and we are in a storm. All of that falls away, and all that is left is the Lord and us, just He and I. And that is why hope is a highway to intimacy with Jesus.
Because when we hope, we allow the rest of it to fall away, and we allow Him to come closer to us, and we allow ourselves to realize that our need is for Him, that we have an immense need of salvation, of love that can only come from union with Him. And so, hope is our anchor, hope keeps us steady, hope takes our effort, and it’s a worthwhile effort, because it will always, always bring us closer to the Lord when we choose to place our trust in Him.
Create Habits of Prayer
So, okay, now that we’ve talked a little bit about how hope is like an anchor, like scripture says, how can we practically do that then, right? How can we wake up every day, especially in a season of a storm where things look hopeless, and still choose the Lord, still choose to cast our anchor in His heart? I have a few ideas. So, the first thing that we can do is we can create habits of consolation that we can maintain in seasons of desolation. What do I mean by that? So, when we are on calm, still waters, when we are just laying back in our boats, enjoying the view, that is the ideal time, according to St. Ignatius, to create habits of prayer that will sustain us when the storms come.
So, if you don’t already have a habit of daily prayer, and that can be a myriad of things, right? Depending on your season or your spirituality, but at least 15 minutes of quiet time with the Lord for meditation and contemplation. And of course, having that built in throughout your day too. So, not just once, but turning your heart to Jesus throughout your daily duties during the day is a wonderful way to create that habit of communion with Christ when times are, maybe, you know, steady on their own. And those, friends, are the things that will sustain us and sustain our hope when the storms come.
I can tell you from experience, when everything else falls away and everything is chaotic, and the only anchor to Christ is that hope, that hope is won and chosen anew each day through our time of daily prayer. Okay, the second thing is we can patiently endure. We can patiently endure. And we practice this in the very small human things, right? So, practicing patience when we’re annoyed by somebody, either somebody we know or somebody we don’t know, right? We can do this by patiently enduring just those small, minor inconveniences that we would rather not have. This is a great practice that we do during Advent, right? We fast and we give alms.
So, we may fast from something that we rather enjoy and that brings us delight, and then we just sit, we allow ourselves to sit in that discomfort, in that wishing for something else. Or we give alms, right? And maybe money feels really tight this year, and so we push ourselves to give a little more than what feels comfortable, because that detaches us from the things of this world, and it also allows us to practice patiently enduring in the face of trial. Okay, we can also remember who God is in order to increase our hope. Because He is good and faithful and kind, we always have reason to hope in Him. But sometimes we forget. That’s why scripture is filled with the encouragement to remember, remember the things the Lord has done, because we’re human and we forget in, like, two seconds, right? And so, we can read sacred scripture, we can read the lives of the saints, and both of these things will encourage remembrance in us about who God is, about what He has done for us, and about what He promises us. And those things always will renew our hope.
Foster Holy Community
Okay, next, we can foster holy community. Being around people who are on this journey to Christ alongside you can really increase your hope, you know, because these are people who are also striving to choose hope every day. They’re casting their anchor out in the open, deep waters. They’re trying to trust and to be confident in the Lord. And being surrounded by people with similar convictions simply just encourages us to keep going and to keep striving. It’s much less difficult to keep going. When we’re surrounded by people who discourage hope, it’s far easier for us to get wound up in the waves and to give up. So, we can strive to foster holy community in our lives.
Frequent The sacraments
Next, we can frequent the sacraments, especially confession and holy communion, because it’s here where we receive sacramental grace, we receive sanctifying grace that is always going to up the virtues in our hearts, bring us closer to God and remind us of who we are in Him. Okay, and then finally, my suggestion would be to choose a saint to put in charge of you. And this can be any saint, maybe one that, you know, maybe it’s your confirmation saint, or your namesake, or maybe a saint that’s stalking you right now, or just maybe a saint who themselves struggled with hope. And you can put them in charge of you. You know, there are big brothers and sisters in Christ, and so let them big brother and big sister you. And so, when I put a saint in charge of me, I say, “Don’t let me give up. Don’t you let me give up hope. Pray for me, pray for me every day. Tap me on the shoulder. Remind me when I’m tempted to give up hope to not give up, and to remember who Jesus is, and to remember my call.” And so, that’s what I would encourage you to do this Advent season too. Choose a saint and put them in charge of you, and say, “Please help me with my hope. Pray for me and help me to have this unshakeable, anchored confidence and trust in the Lord Jesus.” I would love to pray that with you now.
Closing Prayer
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, we trust you and we place our hope in you. Jesus, we just cast the anchor of our hope into the wide, deep waters of your sacred heart. Lord, we love you, and we give you everything. We know that you are with us in our boat. We know that you are faithful. And so, Lord, we just fix our gaze on you. Let not our eyes turn from you. Lord, we know that when we unite our hearts to yours, that our hope is unending and enduring. So give us this hope, Lord. We give you our hearts, and we love you. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Well, friends, I hope this time together has increased your hope a little bit and given you a good metaphor to think on as we live this Advent season in hope. And I just encourage you to maybe pick one or two of those practical ways to stoke hope in your own heart and to focus on that as a part of your Advent prayer. Thank you for listening. Thank you for praying with me. May God bless you.
About Olivia Spears
Olivia Spears lives in Kentucky with her husband and four children. She holds degrees in theology and catechetics from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, educates her kids at home, and relishes a brimming flower garden. She is the founder of Into the Deep, where you can find faith formation resources that help Catholic parents build a legacy of faith in their homes.