A Note to the Reader��������������������������������

As Catholics, we are always on the lookout for God’s pres ence and purpose in our life. Seeing life through the lens of faith nourishes us and inspires us to live up to our full potential and to pursue a life of holiness. Life, after all, is a gift. At least, that’s how God sees it. But do you see it this way?

In this book, I hope not only to help you see your life as a gift from God but also to help you see it, in some measure, as God sees it. That might sound overpromising. How can we possibly see as God sees? But the saints and everyday saints-in-the making demonstrate that this is, in fact, possible. Through the Church, Scripture, prayer, the sacraments, and any number of ways, God reveals the meaning of life and how he wants us to live this gift.

The people I discuss in the following pages discovered for themselves the truth of how God sees things. That insight and knowledge transformed them. They saw what God wanted for them—his will for them—and conformed themselves to that, no matter the cost. They had what I like to think of as a God’s-eye view of things.

I hope this book helps you examine your own life and see it as God sees it. Each chapter includes information about a saint and a modern example of someone who has come to see God’s truth in their own life. Questions for reflection and a prayer round out every chapter, helping you ponder the material from the perspective of your life circumstances. Read it cover-to-cover, if you choose, or dip into it in no particular order. Each chapter stands alone as a possible gateway into a God’s-eye view of your life.

My prayer is that you will allow God to open the eyes of your heart, “that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:18-19). May you come to appreciate and celebrate your life as God does.