If what we said during our entire whole life was,

"Thank You!,"

that would be more than enough."

Meister Eckhart

MAY WE ALWAYS HAVE

A GRATEFUL HEART

GRATITUDE

is the

fairest blossom

which 

springs 

from the

soul!

Thank you for being there!

Gratefulness

FEELING VERY GRATEFUL!

FEELING GRATITUDE AND NOT EXPRESSING IT

IS LIKE WRAPPING A PRESENT

AND NOT GIVING IT. 
-WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD-

Have we thanked God today?

GRATITUDE AND ITS PRACTICE - A REAL LIFE CHALLENGE 

"GRATITUDE as a DISCIPLINE  involves a CONSCIOUS CHOICE.

I CAN CHOOSE TO BE GRATEFUL

even when my emotions and feelings

are steeped in hurt and resentment.

It is amazing how many occassions

present themselves in which we can choose 

gratitude instead of complaint:

I can choose TO BE GRATEFUL when I am criticized,

even when my heart responds in bitterness.

I can choose TO SPEAK OF GOODNESS AND BEAUTY

even when my inner eye still looks for someone

to accuse or something to call ugly.

I can choose TO LISTEN TO THE VOICES THAT FORGIVE

AND TO LOOK AT FACES THAT SMILE,

even when I still hear words of revenge and see grimaces of hatred."

HENRI NOUWEN, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly; 

teach and admonish another in all wisdom; 

and with gratitude in your hearts 

sing psalms, hymns, and spiriutal songs to God. 

Whatever you do, in words or in deed,

 do everything in the name of Jesus."

Col. 3: 17

Gratitude

"Gratitude is the memory of the heart"- French Proverb - 




THANK YOU FOR BEING THERE!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving Season is one of the special times 
 that invite us to pause,to reminisce and to remember 
everything that we need to be grateful for - 
all the people, events, and things -
that have come into our lives
and that have shaped our being into who we are.

Here are some powerful one-liners and inspiratons that might help us
to enter, to fathom and to reflect on 
the many ways by which
we have been invited to live out this spirit of Thanksgiving
in our personal lives!

May we always have a grateful heart!

Happy Thanksgiving!

"In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, 

and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich."

 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Gratitude ... goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" 

and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. 

In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response 

to the awareness of gifts received, 

but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. 

The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge 
that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy."

-- Henri J. M. Nouwen

"Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed 
or those we enjoy now." 


-- A. W. Tozer 

"Thanksgiving like contentment is a learned attitude. The person who has not learned to be content will not be thankful for he lives with the delusion that he deserves more or something better."

--Robert Flatt

"To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, 

to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. 

Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. 

Everything originates in a will for good, which is directed at you. 

Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude."

--Albert Schweitzer

"To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything He has given us--and He has given us everything.  Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him."

~ Thomas Merton

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

 – Thornton Wilder

A Thanksgiving  Blessing

May an abundance of gratitude burst forth

as you reflect upon what you received.

May thanksgiving overflow in your heart

and often be proclaimed in your prayer.

May you gather around the table of your heart

an ardent faithfulness, kindness and goodness

of each person who is true to you.

May the harvest of your good actions

bring forth plentiful fruit each day.

May you discover a cache of hidden wisdom

among the people and events that have brought you 

distress and sorrow.

May your basket of blessings surprise you 

with its diversity of gifts

and of its opportunities for growth.

May all that nourishes and resources your life

bring you daily satisfaction and renewed hope.

May you slow your hurried pace of life

so you can be aware of, and enjoy,

what you too easily took for granted.

May you always be open, willing,

and ready to share your blessings with others.

May you never forget the Generous One

who loves you lavishly and unconditionally.

-Sister Joyce Rupp -

Fall Reflections

FALL REFLECTIONS

Exhaust the little moments. Soon it dies.

And be it gash or gold, it will not come.Again in this identical disguise.

-Gwendolyn Brooks-

How often do we miss God's many blessings because we do not notice and celebrate the little ordinary things that are given to us! Our eyes may have been focused on our myopic pre-occupations and conditionings that set our hearts on accumulating, on possessing, and even immortalizing more of gradiose things around us. During this fall season, I believe, God has a special way of reminding us that it is just wise to be reflective and mindful that everything that we have is God's gift to us and that we should be grateful for the seeming little moments and things around us! 

Recently, I have had the privilege to be in solitude to notice and savor some quiet times for few days while on retreat at the Gethsemani Abbey. I have had the chance to look back and hold my experiences during the past few months that I have been away from religious life.   


What I was initially suprised to notice during my retreat were all those little blessings that I have been given - like the hidden beauty of nature around me and the hidden graces that I have not claimed in my experiences. As I remembered the little acts of friendships and warm companionships of the people that I have met amd mingled with in my new ministry, I was in awe in recognizing the God's greatness.  How do we miss these beauty when they are in the background of the most ordinary!  How these beautiful trees seize our imagination in the fall when their real vibrant colors begin to appear, just before they die and fall unto the ground. 

I remembered and prayed for several friends of mine that have come to terms with their life struggles and have decided that their chemo and blood product transfusions are now over.  I remembered one friend specifically who calmly said that he was finally ready "to cash everything in."  I can only relate to how he felt.  How beautiful our lives must have been when we are finally broken open!  That is, when we finally have accepted who we are and and have recognized what it is that God has always called us to become, i.e., to be one with the one who Created us.


But I was mostly in awe in discovering the other "blessings in disguise" that I have received. I recognized the unwanted interruption to my well, smooth and comfortable life in my community and in my life as a religious.  Life would have been a lot simpler if all I have been after is the reassurance that my body with be lying down with the privileged few and God does not care about what happens in the here and now.  
But I thanked God for waking me up to respond to something deeper and beyond the promise of the life here after.  There are just so many blessings that I would have missed had I have not opted to live my life to its fullest potentials.  

I prayed for the "saints" who chose to be meek and mild, i.e., those who chose to gaze heavenward as they were fed by the perpetrators to the wild hungry lions.  But I remembered also in prayers those who have chosen the "roads not taken." Also those who have chosen to jump off the ship just when they see that the ship they were on, like the Titanic, was about to sink. The pains and struggles must have been unbearable for these people who chose to embrace these alternatives. I am now sure that they enjoy the  grace that come from their choosing to walk with God in the margins of life.


Finally, as I looked again at the stunning fall color all around me, I sensed how it must have been a delight to watch how the trees let go of their treasured leaves. There are just so much promises in believing that our life comes back fuller in our many "letting go's."  Life renews itself in the process of dying because everything is blessed and grace by our Ever Loving  and Abiding God.  He is the "Emmanuel" who has always been with us and are always in us in all of our life experiences. Always sustaining us and nurturing us to a fuller life. 

During this Fall Season, when everything around us seems to be all dying, may we find our hearts and the hearts of all our loved ones,
 closer to the firm embrace 
of our Ever Loving and Abiding God!


With Sister Joyce, let us offer up in prayers all our experiences, including the little ones, by joining her poem for this Fall Season.

GRATITUDE FOR THE LITTLE MOMENTS

Gratitude, yes, for the big things that stand tall,

thick with abundance, joy, fruitfulness.

I cannot help but applaud their presence.

But deep thankfulness for the bite-sized pieces of my life?

I had not thought of them, 

those little snippets of time so easily consumed

in the hurry and blur of pretentious days.

The little moments, assumed and presumed,

slip quickly though the fingers of my busy life.

November gestures, with a wrinkled brown hand,

beckons me wisely to consider

those fleeting moments of grace, in things quickly passing:

a walk on a musky-wooden path,

a cup of coffee silently savored,

a birdsong in the squeaky hours of dawn,

the gentle touch of a liver-spotted hand,

a loving letter from a grateful stranger,

a fading crescent moon on a royal blue sky.

I turn to gather finely layered remnants

like these in the come and go of my days,

and discover, with surprise

how quickly my inner room is a harvest of gold.

-Joyce Rupp-