A Thanksgiving message from Bishop Shaw

Gratitude, it seems to me, is like grace.  Gratitude usually finds me.  I cannot, most of the time,  will gratitude.  All of a sudden it just washes over me.  I'll turn a corner, or look up at the sky, or put down the phone or push away from the table—ordinary actions of any day, and then unexpectedly I am overcome by this unfathomable sense of God's blessing everywhere.

I expect, again, like grace, that gratitude is finding us, washing over us, every minute of every day.  We just miss it, let it pass over us, because we are so concerned with what we think we need.

All, it seems we can do, as with grace, is put our hearts in the way of gratitude, surrender to the possibility that gratitude is everywhere.  It happened to me just the other day, turning the corner onto JFK Street in Cambridge on a sunny fall afternoon.  I made sure the radio was off.  I pushed aside the difficult issues of the day.  And it came flooding over me, this profound sense of gratitude for the thousands of people across our diocese and in our parishes who do the work of advancing the kingdom of God in eastern Massachusetts.  Thank you, everyone, for all you do.

My prayer for all of us this Thanksgiving season is that we put ourselves in the way of gratitude.  May our hearts be ready to receive God's gift.

The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE
November 21, 2011

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