Practicing Abundant Life

From a Word from Becky, my monthly newsletter to my readers

Dear friends, 

As we continue our journey through the Easter season, this coming Sunday’s Gospel offers us a simple and powerful promise from Jesus: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). 

Jesus speaks these words as he shared that he is the Good Shepherd—the one who knows us by name, who leads us, and who desires our wholeness. This promise of abundant life is not abstract or distant. It is deeply personal. 

Abundant life is not about having more or doing more. It is about living rooted in relationship with the Good Shepherd who leads us toward freedom, love, and deeper life. Our relationship with the Good Shepherd sends us outward to use our gifts as people for others. The promise of an abundant life is given to us by the Good Shepherd in both our interior lives and external lives!   

 So often we imagine abundance as something loud, obvious, or extraordinary. Yet the Easter season teaches us otherwise. The Resurrection shows us that abundant life frequently unfolds quietly, in the ordinary rhythms of our days. This season invites us to pay attention to the multitude of ways the Risen Christ is encountering us and sending us forward to live a life of meaning and purpose.   

Practicing abundant life means learning to notice where life is already stirring within us. It may appear as a moment of peace during uncertainty, a gentle return of hope after loss, or the grace to choose love where fear once held sway. Like the disciples, we may still find ourselves behind locked doors at times—unsure, hesitant, or weary. And yet, it is precisely there that the Risen Christ enters, breathing new life into us, filling us with hope, and empowering us forward to share what we received with others.   

In the Fourth Week of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, we are invited to savor the joy of the Resurrection. We ask for the grace of joy and rejoicing with the Risen Lord. This joy is not forced or superficial. It is a deep, abiding joy that grows as we learn to recognize how the Risen Christ is already present and active in our lives—drawing us toward fullness of life. 

This Easter season, I offer us this prayer exercise:  

Practicing Abundant Life 

• Begin by gently placing yourself in God’s presence. Take a few slow breaths. Ask for the grace to see your life as God sees it. 

• Slowly read the promise of the Good Shepherd: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Read the words more than once. Let them settle. Notice if a phrase, image, or feeling draws your attention. 

• Reflect quietly: Where do I notice life, freedom, or joy stirring within me right now? Where do I sense an invitation toward more life? Where do I feel sent forth to share my gifts with others?  

• Speak to the Good Sheperd as friend to friend. Share what you desire, where you feel drawn, and where you may feel resistance or fear. 

• Close by resting in gratitude. Trust the Good Shepherd to lead you, gently and faithfully, one step at a time.  

As we practice living from this posture of prayer, we discover that abundance is less about what we accumulate and more about who we are becoming—people shaped by Resurrection hope, attentive to joy, willing to share our gifts, and open to the life Christ longs to give us. 

May the Good Shepherd lead you into deeper freedom and joy and the abundant life promised by the Good Shepherd and available to us still through his Resurrection. 

Know of my prayers for you!  

Peace, 

Becky