• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
steps and a sidewalk decorated in colored chalk by children

All that we offer

April 2, 2025
By Rita Buettner
Catholic Review
Filed Under: Blog, Commentary, Lent, Open Window

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

When I make beef vegetable soup, I am incapable of making the right amount for our family of four. We always end up with extra.

So, after I made a pot of soup this week, I texted my sister to see if she’d like some for her, her husband, and their six children. Treasa wrote back enthusiastically.

I filled a container with soup, and after we finished dinner, my husband and I got in the car to make the 15-minute drive to my sister’s house.

On the way, I thought of how aunts and uncles should arrive with treats—something sweet, perhaps. We were arriving with…soup with lots of veggies in it. That seemed kind of blah.

Still, soup is something—and we hadn’t seen the kids in a while.

As we pulled up outside their house, we could see five of our nieces and nephews were busy in the yard. They had decorated the sidewalk with chalk and were playing together. As we walked up the striped steps, our 7-year-old twin nephews started playing catch with a baseball.

They were all excited to see the ever-popular Uncle John, and the children chattered away while I tried to guess aloud what they had drawn on the sidewalk and watched the baseball sail over our heads.

As the group hurried through the front door to go inside, no one asked what we had brought in our bag. The children were too busy piling onto the couch to listen to their uncle read a story.

I handed off the soup to my brother-in-law, and I chatted with him and my sister while the children played and talked with Uncle John. I’m sure their house is never dull, but it was certainly full of excitement. And it wasn’t because of the soup.

Soon enough, we said goodbye and headed home. As we drove away, I thought about how happy they were just to see us—even though we didn’t show up with ice cream or chocolate or anything exciting from a child’s perspective. (They did put a plug in for their sister’s ninth birthday next week, which was a gift to at least one disorganized aunt who had forgotten it was April.)

We came with little to offer, just as us, and they were completely delighted—waiting outside to greet us, and ready to welcome us into their home. (To be clear, they were mostly excited to see Uncle John.)

It made me think about how often we feel we have very little to offer. We worry we are not prepared or not adequate or not enough in some way. But we are often just enough. We offer more than we think. And the people we encounter might be ready to greet us just as we are.

As we continue through Lent, it can be easy to feel that we are falling short. And we may well be. I certainly am. But Jesus’ love for us is greater than we can imagine. He sees our sins and shortcomings and loves us completely.

He doesn’t care whether we’ve brought gifts or burdens or what seems like nothing at all. He’s ready to receive us fully and love us as we are.

During these last weeks of Lent, maybe Jesus simply wants us to be present, listening to him, walking with him, and being open to his plan in our lives.

Copyright © 2025 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Rita Buettner

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

Images of Mary: Can we find the Blessed Mother in the Old Testament?

How public opinion can influence migration policies

Reckoning with empire: A Catholic critique of American foreign policy in a nuclear age

Wide shot of a sunrise on the beach, with a figure standing toward the left watching the light come into the sky

We’re at the beach. Let’s go see the sunrise

The ‘both/and’ pope

| Recent Local News |

Gun buyback exceeds expectations, previous totals

Radio Interview: The situation in Gaza with Catholic Near East Welfare Association

Patrick Brice sentenced to home detention for attacks on elderly pro-life supporters

Notre Dame of Maryland University joins with Milwaukee college to address teacher shortage

Sister Agnese Neumann dies at 95

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • For Gazans, the deep silence of hunger has replaced noise of daily life
  • Hope is knowing God is always ready to forgive, pope says at audience
  • Images of Mary: Can we find the Blessed Mother in the Old Testament?
  • Report: Christian church attacks down, but recent totals still higher than 2018-2022
  • How public opinion can influence migration policies
  • Home viewing roundup: What’s available to stream and what’s on horizon
  • Petition filed at Supreme Court seeks overturn of landmark same-sex marriage ruling
  • Head of Spanish political party criticizes Catholic Church’s defense of Muslim community
  • At 80th anniversary Mass in Nagasaki, people urged to bring Christ’s love, peace to world

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en