I just want to take this time to share thoughts from a friend of mine that I thinks puts a great prospective on Thanksgiving! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! LIVING THANKFUL LIVES Sister Melannie, a Sister of Notre Dame gives talks and leads retreat at the national level. She had this to say about Thanksgiving: “Today, we pause and give thanks for all of the blessings we have received: family, friends, faith, freedom, health, trees flowers, apples, rivers, whales and honeybees. We acknowledge that all is a gift, all a blessing. As astronomer Carl Sagan said, ‘if you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you first have to invent the universe’ “. Thanksgiving is a time to remember that life is a gift. We do nothing to earn it and nor do we not deserve it. It is a sheer gift from God. Those who are supremely concerned about privilege, position, power and security will have a difficult time being truly thankful. It is so easy to be so turned in upon ourselves that we might have the experience of Thanksgiving Day and miss the meaning. This special day beckons us to offer thanks for the heritage that has been given to this country so enthroned in riches between the seas, so rich in resources and so populated by so many good and loving people. I hope that we will have the grace to transcend our prosperity, to be superior to our wealth and to do all that we can in all of the ways that we can to make it minister and not master. In a strange and mystical way ,Thanksgiving softens our hearts toward those who have very little for which to be thankful—those who are loaded with difficulty, filled with anxiety, broken hearted, disappointed, battling terminal illness, living in grinding poverty and those who have struck out so many times that they do not want to get up to bat again. The season of Thanksgiving opens our hearts to have concern for every man woman and child. Thanksgiving also causes me to consider that for which I am not thankful. As one who sees life as a gift, I am not thankful for bullying, for the constant display of violence on television, for how easy it is to worship the gods of consumption, or how so many secure and wealthy people have failed to speak out in word and deed on behalf of children who are trapped in hunger and poverty, and for how the nations of the world have not found a way to live together in peace. May this Thanksgiving remind us that it is not enough to say a casual “thanks”. There is also a crying need for us to do thanks, that is, we need to share our blessings with others both for their good and for ours. Let us pause and think about those gifts for which we are most grateful: family, education, resources, food, talents, friends, and our faith in God who grants us the gift of life itself. After pondering our multiplied gifts let us ask: How can we share our gifts with others? Our sharing has the possibility of helping us to see how terrible it would be to go through life with no one to thank for the glories of the world, for loving relationships and the mysterious gift of life itself. May this day be holy for one and all. Joe E. Pennel Jr. Bishop of the United Methodist Church (retired) Professor of Pastoral Leadership Vanderbilt Divinity School
Posted on: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 17:03:07 +0000