Gratitude

I sat down here to try and figure out if I was going to post anything when I went over to check out Carmelitemom's blog. She had a post called Praise God and she also does posts she refers to as her Gratitude Journal. Reading this reminded me of an awesome talk that Father gave Friday night at the Miles Christi Evening of Recollection. It was all about Gratitude.

He told us that at all times, but most especially during this, the Easter Season, we need to give "immense thanks to God!" God gave us His only Son so that He could die to save us. For that we must be eternally grateful.

Father also reminded us about how much St. Paul talked about the virtue of gratitude. Check out 1 Cor 1:4, 1 Thes 5:18 and 1 Cor 15:57 for some examples.

This is a great quote from the talk:

"Gratitude enkindles charity and inspires our gestures of love toward others, for if it is sincere, it expresses heartfelt affection. Therefore, while gratitude is the sign of the nobility of a soul, ingratitude is one of the worst vices. A lack of gratitude signals a lack of love - at least, a certain negligence in our dealings with others, or at best, a callousness."

It was kind of funny because while he was giving this awesome talk, I kept wishing that my older kids were there to hear it (of course, not because the are especially ungrateful, just because it was such a good talk :) when Father said, "We need to regard our personal lack of thankfulness and correct ourselves with care, rather than concern ourselves with criticism of others' lack of gratitude, thinking, for example, how 'they should be here to hear this'"! What great timing God has!

Anyhow, I thought I'd jump on the gratitude train and offer up some things that I am grateful for today (or should I say yesterday since I wrote this on Sunday evening but you are not reading it until Monday):

1. The sun coming out to warm up our day after a day and night of rain.
2. Good, wholesome food to eat for dinner
3. Some wonderfully talented young people to listen to at a piano recital today.
4. Good movies to watch, like "Fireproof". We were supposed to watch the second Star Wars movie. Thankfully we borrowed Fireproof instead!!
5. The many, many ways that God shows me He truly does love me, each and every day.
6. A special gift my father gave me this morning without even realizing it.
7. The wonderful family that I am so blessed to be surrounded by.

I hope you have a glorious day and remember, "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad"!