HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I cannot think or write about Thanksgiving without thinking about how blessed we are with so much grace and the need to be grateful for everything! I’ve been saving the three quotes in this article for quite a while, and they just seemed to fall into place for this November article.
I think I mentioned in a previous article that my community of Sisters has been focusing on the many Graced Encounters, and more recently Graced Gifts, that each Sister has been willing to share as she reflects on her life as a religious Sister. Many of the Sisters express gratitude for these encounters and gifts, which they consider as the grace that God is spreading around the world through them and in them. What a lovely way to think of one’s purpose for being on this planet!
I love the contrast yet similarity between God spreading grace around like a five-year-old spreads peanut butter and Mr. Chesterton saying grace before just about everything he does. Dr. Trueblood’s insight that we truly live by grace far more than by anything else is something to reflect upon as we celebrate with gratitude all that we have in our lives at this time. I know that many of us are not so sure we have so much grace in our lives in these times as we watch the news and consider how our very lives have changed so much since COVID, wars, gun violence, natural disasters, political upheaval, and the list could go on and on.
Let’s take a few moments and take a look at just what grace means here. If it is, indeed, “unearned blessing,” as Dr. Trueblood writes, then exactly what can we be sad about or how can we feel that we haven’t been blessed when many experiences have come our way through no effort on our part? There is a huge maple tree outside my bedroom window, and every year since I’ve lived here it slowly changes into this absolutely gorgeous, variegated orange bouquet of autumn loveliness. I could sit on my porch and just look at it all day, and I often stop and do just that, feeling like I’m absorbing the beauty into my very being. It is definitely an unearned blessing just being there for all to see.
I challenge you to make a list of the unearned blessings in your life this past year, month, week, or day. Perhaps you can share it with your guests at Thanksgiving dinner or as part of your daily prayer before meals or before you go to bed. Just think of the many graced moments and events in your life and develop the conscious and deliberate habit of finding somebody to thank. For many folks that “somebody” would be God, but really anybody could and should be able to receive our thank you, our gratitude for blessing us with his or her graced word or deed. Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you for reading this issue of Healthy Living News!
Sister Mary Thill is a Sylvania Franciscan Sister. She can be reached at mthill@sistersosf.org. ✲
One of the noblest words in our
language is grace,
defined as “unearned blessing.”
We live by grace far more than by
anything else.
Accordingly, I find that the one thing
which I want to put into practice
in my own life is the conscious and
deliberate habit
of finding somebody to thank.
+Dr. Elton Trueblood
God is spreading grace around in the
world like a five-year-old
spreads peanut butter; thickly,
sloppily, eagerly,
and if we are in the back shed trying
to stay clean,
we won’t even get a taste.
+Donna Schaper
You say grace before meals. All right.
But I say grace before the concert and
the opera, and grace before the play
and pantomime, and grace before I
open a book, and grace before
sketching, painting, and
swimming, fencing, boxing,
walking, playing, dancing, and
grace before I dip the pen in ink.
+G.K. Chesterton
