In Croatia women have a great devotion to St. Anthony, especially young girls praying for a husband. One girl was fed up one day and threw statue out the window; it hit a young man passing by and she ended up marrying this man. The  words of Elijah in the first reading of today’s mass resonate with many of us – ‘I’ve had enough’. How many times have we said: ‘I’ve had enough’? We find Elijah worn out and discouraged, praying for death, a day’s journey into the desert. He’s sick and tired of being God’s prophet; he wants to throw in the towel. We all have experienced feelings of discouragement like this. During my 40 years as a priest, I have felt like giving up, some of you in your long-married or professional lives have felt like giving up, many young people have felt like giving up their studies, etc. The message in our first reading is that what seems like defeat and the absence of God is shown not to be the case. Even though Elijah is discouraged, and dispirited God is very close to him. So, it is with us; God is always there for us in the moments we accept our limitations and even experienced failure, when we realise that left to ourselves, we are powerless when it comes to certain struggles. During this past year we’ve all experienced how a tiny virus has turned this world upside down and challenged all of us to look at what we consider important in life. I remember reading a book about sports men and women who had won medals in the Olympics and many other accolades, when it was all over for them many of them fell into depression, drug addiction, burn-out etc. – a lot of coverage was given this week to the American artistic Gymnast Simone Biles who had to withdraw because of burn-out. Pope St. John Paul II commented to a priest at a meeting with youth in Naples: ‘I needed that round of applause.’ Sometimes we are reluctant to admit our human limitations. We want to always appear strong. The world and media will tell you: It’s not cool to show weakness and fear. Some may even think that such feelings aren’t worthy of someone who has faith in God; but this could not be further from the truth. As we go through life we come up against a lot of negativity. Let’s not listen to this negativity, don’t let negative people rain on our parade. A running competition was orgnaised for a bunch of tiny frogs. The  the goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. Very few thought that the frogs would reach this goal, they will never make it, it’s too dificult, the tower is too hight. As the race began the tiny frogs got tired and gave up, but one little frog conintued higher and higher and never gave up and evenatuly reached the top. When they asked the question where did this frog find the strenght to reach the goal. It turned out that the winner was deaf.  Never listen to negative people, because they take your dreams and wishes away from you. Always think positivly and be positive in your comments to other people. With God’s help we can achieve anything.