A Note of Thanks

Today's Gospel is the story of the 10 lepers who were healed by Jesus. Nine of them kept going along their way and only one returned to thank Jesus. St. Luke writes in his Gospel that the thankful man "realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him."

I am always deeply convicted by this Gospel. So many times I cry out to God in my loud spiritual voice and beg him for favors, graces, healings, help! But then when He answers me I give him a little thank-you that is probably so faint He can hardly hear it! Or I may forget to thank him at all. I really do forget and I found myself going before the Lord this morning and asking him to forgive me for taking him for granted.

Next week is Thanksgiving. May I make a suggestion? Before that day make your own Litany of Thanksgiving, a list of all the things that you are thankful for, especially those graces and gifts you have received from the Lord this past year. Thank him too, for the hard things because through them he is giving us something - patience, endurance, perseverance.

For example: Lord Jesus, for my family, I give you thanks; for the gift of my life, I give you thanks; for the gift of my health, I give you thanks; that I am free to worship you, I give you thanks; for my job, I give you thanks, that I have food for my table, I give you thanks...

This Litany can be an ongonig project because each day we can think of still more gifts to be thankful for. On Thanksgiving day, on our knees like the healed leper, we can offer our thanks to the Lord. But like me why not make a firm resolution to thank the Lord every day. Let's not take him for granted.