Happy Thanksgiving! On behalf of the staff here at Holy Spirit, I want to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Without a doubt, we could spend much time focusing on the many things going wrong, but I want to remind us of the tremendous importance and calling we have to be a people of Thankfulness! Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever. Psalm 106:1. I want you to know that God is with you at all times and will surely be your source of strength and comfort this year as He has been in years past.
It seems so appropriate that before we get to “the most wonderful time of the year”, that we take a few moments to express our thanks to God.
What Are You Thankful For? It’s a simple question to ask. There will be many different answers to this question. Some will give deep philosophical or theological answers about life and God. Others will give seemingly more simple answers like family and friends. There will also be those who aren’t be able to give any answer.
For many, giving thanks doesn’t come naturally. In fact, it can be a very difficult task. This doesn’t mean life is bad. Some simply find it hard to think of good things.
Count Your Blessings: There have been multiple studies to show the positive effects of listing our blessings. When we intentionally show gratitude, we feel better about our lives and about the world around us. Showing gratitude helps us to readjust the lenses we look at life through and see a better, more accurate, reflection of reality.
Express Your Gratitude: Take some time this Thanksgiving to express exactly what you’re thankful for. You can tell your friends and family around a dinner table or share it on social media. It will help them and it will help you. You might even want to write a few gratitude letters to people who you’re grateful for.
Let us celebrate our Thanksgiving Day with the Holy Eucharist. Mass is at 10AM. Let us pray that we shall always be thankful to God for all his gifts and blessings, which he, each and every day, so lovingly and graciously showers upon each one of us.
Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Christ the King! The parable in today’s Gospel is noticeably clear: there will be a final judgment. What is also clear is that both the good and the evil failed to recognize how the seeds of this last judgment were planted in their everyday interactions with others. Re-read the text: both groups asked the question, “When did we see you…when did we welcome you…when did we visit you…when did we give you…?” Right up until the last day, both groups failed to grasp the intimate relationship between God’s judgment of us and our relationships to one another. Both groups failed to recognize the connection between the love of God and performing simple, ordinary acts of love for others.
This parable challenges us to recognize that the final judgment is not a one-time event: in the eyes of God this judgment is an ongoing, daily event. God is extremely interested in judging how we use each moment of our lives, not simply the last one.
But while this parable speaks volumes about God’s judgment, it also has a lot to say about our own judgment. In the end, the final judgment is heavily impacted by the kind of judgment we use in relating to one another, day in, day out, in the most unique, as well as the most ordinary, of life’s events, circumstances, responsibilities and demands.
What do our affections, attitudes and actions toward others every day say about the final disposition of our souls? What does the way we live our lives on earth say about our lives in the hereafter?
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