Continuing from The Gift of Faith:

Only a person who has faith is able to be grateful for everything.  This gratitude will be visible on your face as joy; for everything may be changed into good.  This reflection about talents refers to the teaching of St. Paul and to the famous thesis of St. Augustine: ‘For the ones who love God, all things work for good, even sin’ (Rom 8:28).  Therefore, even a fall, which is a great misfortune, can be an opportunity within which is hidden some kind of talent given to you in that situation, from which you can profit.  You only need your faith or your conversion towards such faith which will enable you to look through the eyes of Jesus.

Thinking along these lines can be transformational.  I can’t help but think of a quote of Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity: “Everything that happens is for me a message of the excessive love of God for my soul.”  And as Amy Carmichael would say: “Everything means everything.”  There’s a lot to be meditated on in just the word “excessive” . . .  I can remember many times when I’ve said this quote out loud to myself in the midst of something that didn’t feel like His excessive love.  Sometimes it’s big things–like being elected superior–but most of the time it’s little things, like those interruptions that I don’t like or changes of plans.  (You can see where my self-centeredness lies . . .)   Yet if I can just remember that my self-centeredness is indeed also a “talent” . . .