Gratitude

Grace for the week…

To understand and to rejoice gratefully in the persons we are and are called to become—by God’s gracious and loving desire and design.

Grace

Why do we start with gratitude? Gratitude comes first because gratitude opens our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to recognize our true selves, our identity. Through the eyes of gratitude we come to realize how gifted we are. Each of us is the product of many more “givers” than we can possibly name.

We have been given ourselves by our parents, our siblings, our relatives, our neighbors, our friends, our educators, our co-workers, and so many others who have affirmed and nurtured and supported us—in order that we might be ourselves.

And below and beneath them all is God who has given us the very gift ofl ife itself, and all the gifts that are inherent in human being—in being human.  Think of our sensation, intelligence, freedom, feeling, imagination, consciousness, creativity, desire for loving and of being loved, of choosing and acting and living to the full. And thanks to the nurturing of others, the education we’ve received, and the experiences we’ve had, all these human gifts gradually realize their potential and grow to maturity and refinement.

With the practice of gratitude, not only do we realize how gifted we are, we recognize that we, in fact, are gift.  We also come to appreciate the givers. And so we are enabled to see quite clearly why gratitude is called “the springboard to love” — to the receiving of love and the giving of love.

Gratitude relates us appropriately and affectionately to God, to other human beings, and to the natural environment that is our “home.”  And these relationships in turn awaken in us a sense of responsibility to reciprocate the love others have showered on us.  It is by sharing the gift we are and the many gifts we have that we best say “Thanks” to the givers.

Gratitude tempers self-absorption and disappointment.  It provides balance when we encounter resistance or things go wrong, when other people or forces seem to constrain our freedom or thwart our desires.  Gratitude reminds us that there is much that has gone right and, more importantly, that we pursue our desires and use our gifts within our relationships.  Giving is reciprocal.  Gratitude for the gifts we have been given calls us to respect the gifts and desires of others.

We exist in relationship to God, who knows and loves us perfectly, and to other people, who know and love us in the same imperfect way that we love them.  If we are truly grateful to God for loving, nurturing, and guiding us despite our imperfections, we will express that gratitude in tolerance for the imperfections of others.

Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God and God continues to form us into a fuller likeness.  Yet even though we have not yet achieved the perfection toward which God is calling us, God has entrusted us with the responsibility of stewardship for our world.  The more we can become our true selves, the better stewards we will be.  Gratitude helps to keep us focused on the favor God has granted us rather than on the adversity we encounter.  As the psalmist exclaims: “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?  You have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.  You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet.”

Prayer for the week:

Praised are you, O God, Creator of the universe,
Who graciously bestows all good gifts upon us.
You have made us stewards over the world
so that in honoring your creation we may honor you.
Grant that we may use your gifts gratefully and
that we may have generous hearts and minds.
Help us return to you in gratitude and in delight
all the good things you have given us.
We ask these things in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Adapted by Christine Szczepanowski from A Year of Prayer Guide Book produced by the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus (2005); prayer from the Stewardship Commission, St. Mary’s Catholic Church, College Station, TX. Home page image created by Sr. Asunta ACJ and Christine Szczepanowski; used with permission.