Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope all my readers (and everyone else) have a great Thanksgiving celebration with friends and family!

I, for one, have a great deal for which to be thankful.  I am able to spend Thanksgiving at home with my parents.  I am blessed to exercise my priestly ministry in a beautiful parish, with a great pastor and a wonderful community.   I have reasonably good health, sufficient income, and a warm place to work and sleep. Throughout my life I have been blessed with many enriching experiences and opportunities, some of which relatively few people ever have.  I have easy access to the Sacraments, and am allowed to live my faith openly and share it with others.  I could go on and on.  Not everything is peaches and cream, but God has been very good to me, and despite my sins and failings, has given me many second (and third, and fourth, and fifth…) chances.

Let’s not forget today to thank God for His many blessings, and to pray for those who are less fortunate than ourselves.  Even those who are in the lower percentages of material prosperity in the USA are much better off than many people around the world, and it can be easy to forget that.

A very good way to give thanks to God is by sharing some of the blessings we have received with those who are in need, whether it be directly – like all the food that people have donated to churches and other organizations for Thanksgiving meals for the poor, or volunteering time at some service organization – or indirectly, by making a monetary donation to a worthy cause.  Of course, for Catholics, it’s also great to go to Mass today if possible.  The Eucharist is the highest form of thanksgiving in prayer that we can offer.

God bless you all!  Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for warm, friendly cats!

Frey (the cat) is thankful for friendly people, too

 

Advertisement