A Reflection for Thanksgiving Day

Find today’s readings here.

And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. (Lk 17:15-16)

Prayers of gratitude often are some of the easiest to say and the easiest to forget to say. In times of trouble many people turn to God. But when things are going well, it’s very tempting to give ourselves full credit for our success, and to overlook the fact that all we have and all we are comes from God. All too often we are like the lepers in today’s Gospel who plead for Jesus’ help and then, when we receive that help, forget to offer gratitude.

In his daily Examen, St. Ignatius urges us to look upon our day with gratitude. The practice is so important that he urges Jesuits to do it twice a day. And the first reading shows us how simple it can be to get started: “Bless the God of all, who has done wondrous things on earth.” Seeking opportunities for gratitude daily is a helpful practice because it means that we will be expressing gratitude even on days when it’s not easy to feel it. On days when there has been a loss or a broken relationship or bad news. On days when we feel angry at God or feel that God is not present.

Seeking opportunities for gratitude daily is a helpful practice because it means that we will be expressing gratitude even on days when it’s not easy to feel it.

Gratitude as a practice takes work; it reminds us that sometimes challenges can be a source of gratitude, and that even in the midst of hard times there is often much to be thankful for: the comfort of a friendship, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, life everlasting. This sort of gratitude leads us toward greater freedom, the sort of freedom that allows us in prayers of petition to ask not for our will but God’s. I am often reminded of the words of Dag Hammarskjöld, who wrote: “For all that has been, Thank you. For all that is to come, Yes!”

Let us be grateful for the opportunity to offer that yes.

Kerry Weber joined the staff of America in October 2009. Her writing and multimedia work have since earned several awards from the Catholic Press Association, and in 2013 she reported from Rwanda as a recipient of Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship. Kerry is the author of Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Visit the Imprisoned, and Keep Your Day Job (Loyola Press) and Keeping the Faith: Prayers for College Students (Twenty-Third Publications). A graduate of Providence College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously worked as an editor for Catholic Digest, a local reporter, a diocesan television producer, and as a special-education teacher on the Navajo reservation in Arizona.