Giving Thanks

It won't be "Thanksgiving Day" in the United States until November, but even those with no faith at all know that gratitude is good for the spirit. Gratitude to whom? I sometimes wonder when I see, for example, a child's Strawberry Shortcake book in which each character says, "I'm thankful for...", "I'm thankful for...", but nobody ever says to whom! Grateful to the cosmos? Grateful to the postal employee who brought the package? For goodness' sake, people, let's say it how it is.

We're thankful to God!

In past centuries, people knew how to build architecture that pointed Heavenward. They used their skills to build monuments of gratitude and glory to God. I may not be able to build a cathedral or basilica (like the Duomo bell tower in Florence, shown above), but I can show my gratitude to God in other ways.

One way that the saints suggest is to meditate on the gifts He has given us. We can take fifteen minutes of quiet once a day (Sunday is a wonderful day to start!) to think of one aspect of what He has done for us. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, as quoted in Travels of Mother Cabrini, wrote to her nuns:

"Give your tribute of gratitude often to the most loving Jesus. Consider with frequency the graces, both general and particular, that you have received, taking a retrospective view of your lives. If you meditate well, you will perceive the torrents of these salutary waters of Divine grace which have inundated your soul at the various stages and different circumstances of your past lives. With how much care has not the most dear Jesus always watched over you!"

If we continue to meditate on all the little things (and great things) that He has done for us, we see so much more beauty in our lives...so many more gifts in our lives...so much more to be thankful for in our lives!