Happy Thanksgiving Digital Neighbors and ADD Irregulars! Thank you all for making Padre’s a place of fellowship and laughter, a place where we can boldly support, graciously disagree and curiously question one another as loving neighbors. I am so thankful this morning to God for bringing all of you into my life. I am ever so thankful for our morning chats; they so often send me out the door with a chuckle and gratitude as I get ready for Mass.
I can't say that I live everyday grounded in gratitude, but many of them are awash with an abundance of gratitude and reasons to be thankful. Even on the days that test me, I know my greater reality is unmerited blessings and gifts in living that have come my way. Since I believe in a Giver, it prompts me easily enough to respond in either personal prayer, communal worship or service to neighbor or stranger.

Gratitude does not mean that I ignore the realities of life like hardship, suffering and death, but rather that I return to the greater cause for gratitude after the episode of sorrow and stretching has passed. Sometimes we have to choose gratitude in the middle of the trial to keep us grounded in the truths that are larger than suffering. I believe in a God who is not a stranger to suffering but has entered it in the most personal of ways. While I have often prayed for deliverance for myself and others, I am thankful for perseverance and its humble invitation of trust.

While I am tempted to go through a Romper Room reading of names, I would not want to accidentally forget someone. Thank you to all our daily participants, especially our Coffee Talkers and those who drop by for the afternoon chats. It is about a close as we can get to being in each other’s company. And what an awesome company it is! Thank you to those who visit Padre’s offering you likes and commenting on what your digital neighbors share. To those who are infrequent or absent know you are missed, and I pray you are well. I think of you often. As Sept would say, BIG HUGS to all of you. A few quotes that I have shared before, but they capture our vibe and they are worth repeating again. Thank you all for helping my soul to blossom.

Live a life full of humility, gratitude, intellectual curiosity, and never stop learning. - Gza

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. - Tescumseh

Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. - Marcel Proust

Lord,
make the old tolerant,
the young sympathetic,
the great humble,
the busy patient.
Make rich people understanding,
strong people gentle,
those who are weak prayerful;
make the religious lovable,
happy folk thoughtful,
the clever kindly,
the bad good,
the good pleasant
and, dear Lord, make me what I ought to be.

Short Prayers for the Long Day