I Hope You Know I Love You

Shelly Henley Kelly counts the witness of a suffering friend among the many reasons for her hope.

For the Jubilee of Hope, our writers reflect on prayer as a source of hope in their lives.

This Jubilee year reminds us that we are pilgrims of Hope on a journey to encounter God. In joyful anticipation, we trust in God’s promise of salvation. We walk through life with the hope of heaven, a hope that comes from the Lord through the Holy Spirit.  

In his first letter to early Christians, Saint Peter urged them to remain faithful despite threats of suffering, encouraging them: “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Peter 3:15). 

What Reason Would I Give?  

Through prayer, it’s revealed that I draw my hope from the many small ordinary encounters with God in my daily life. Morning Scripture. Christian music. Listening to my husband lead our teenage son in his nightly prayers, a ritual they’ve developed over years. Hearing my daughter raise her voice in song, proclaiming the goodness and mercy of God during her waiting years. A memory of my younger daughter realizing that she truly believed in the faith. Daily interactions with my parents, sister, and friends — online, in person, and on the telephone.  

We are called to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardship of any kind. (Pope Francis, Spes Non Confundit)

When faced with trials that test my faith, I need only to reflect on God at work during my friend’s cancer battle to restore my hope. 

We worked together for six years. I never knew much about her relationship with God, only that she’d been raised on hellfire and brimstone preaching. Her presence filled every room, vibrantly alive. Loud and productive, she rarely took no for an answer. When the cancer first struck, it demanded a sacrifice of both her cigarettes and her voice box. Yet she never let this slow her down; if anything she lived life more fiercely, wielding her new prosthetic voice with bold determination.  

A few years later the cancer metastasized and this time she approached the battle with frustrated confidence. As the illness progressed, she’d occasionally reach out to me for an encouraging word and I’d send her funny memes, messages of strength, and images of Scripture such as Joshua 1:9. This opened the door to various conversations about God and his merciful love for us.  

Transformed by Hope 

A few weeks before Christmas, she experienced a medical emergency that required Life Flight. When I met her in person in mid-February she confided to me that she’d died on the flight, saw heaven, and was told, “Not yet,” before waking up in the ER.  

The experience transformed her. She no longer feared death. She began saying “I love you” to everyone she knew. She lived the rest of her life LOVING others, in hope of the promise of the Heaven she witnessed. As her body grew weaker and treatment options dissipated, she spent a long weekend alone with her cousin, a Protestant pastor, and made what Catholics would call a good Confession. She wrote letters to her family and friends, and put her affairs into order. She fought bravely until she finally returned to Heaven in the early morning hours of Easter Sunday. I wept tears of sorrow in awe and wonder at the glory of God welcoming her home on that day.  

A large, diverse community of friends attended the funeral service led by her pastor-cousin who offered messages of hope and healing for those struggling to accept that a merciful and loving Christ died for them and their sins also.  

Prayer in Action 

It’s been seven years since my friend died, and she remains in my thoughts and prayers. Our personal interactions in those seeking and suffering moments are memories I hold onto tightly. In those conversations I learned that sometimes prayer comes in our actions, the ways we speak to other people, about life, about suffering, about our journey to God.  

Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays. (CCC 2562) 

 
If prayer is a conversation with God and Christ commands us to love one another as He loved us, then every sincerely meant “I love you” to another is not only a prayer for them, but also a prayer to God. Living Christ’s love on earth is a prayer.  

An Act of Hope 

I know my friend is with God in Heaven because God’s mercy is boundless, outside of our human understanding. I believe in the hope of seeing her in that bright, warm, joyful, place overwhelmed with love. We shall meet again, and I will hear her loud voice and we will embrace in the presence of God.  

Until then, I pray an Act of Hope for that moment. 

O my God, relying on Your almighty power and infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Your grace and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. Amen. 

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Copyright 2025 Shelly Henley Kelly
Images: Holy Cross Family Ministries