A Thanksgiving Liturgy & a Prayer from Walter Brueggemann...

A Thanksgiving Liturgy from Christine Sine on Godspace blog…HERE.

Thanksgiving Prayer from Walter Brueggemann

The witnesses tell of your boundless generosity,
and their telling is compelling to us:
You give your world to call the worlds into being;
You give your sovereign rule to emancipate the slaves and the oppressed;
You give your commanding fidelity to form your own people;
You give your life for the life of the world...
broken bread that feeds,
poured out wine and binds and heals.
You give...we receive...and are thankful.

We begin this day in gratitude,
thanks that is a match for your self-giving,
gratitude in gifts offered,
gratitude in tales told,
gratitude in lives lived.

Gratitude willed, but no so readily lived,
held back by old wounds turned to powerful resentment,
slowed by early fears become vague anxiety,
restrained by self-sufficiency in a can-do arrogance,
blocked by amnesia unable to recall gifts any longer.

Do this yet. Create innocent spaces for us this day
for the gratitude we intend.

In thankfulness,
we will give,
we will tell,
we will live,
your gift through us to gift the world. Amen

~ Walter Brueggemann, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann (Fortress Press, 2002)

Begin with Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Below is a reflection on gratitude originally posted on This Ignatian Life blog last year. Original post...HERE.

Recently I took some time out to renew and refresh my understanding of Ignatian spirituality. While I consider myself very much a newbie to all things Ignatian, it was good to recall and remember how the themes and posture of Ignatian spirituality have impacted my life in significant ways these past five years. Ignatian themes of attentiveness, finding God in all things, contemplative activism, imagination, discernment and gratitude have all shaped and deepened my formation and vocation. All this has inspired me to give renewed attention to these Ignatian themes and practices in my own life. I begin with gratitude.

Gratitude has a prominent place in Ignatian spirituality. The practice of examen begins with looking at your day with gratitude. The process of examen that I often use says it this way,  “Gratitude is the foundation of our whole relationship with God. So use whatever cues help you to walk through the day from the moment of awakening – even the dreams you recall upon awakening. Walk through the past twenty-four hours, from hour to hour, from place to place, task to task, thanking the Lord for every gift you encounter.” (1) In my experience with examen, I have found it important to begin with this posture of gratitude.

Too often my self-examination is critical and focuses on the negative in my own life. I am my own worst critic. However, as I prayerfully enter into examen, making space for gratitude provides necessary focus and directs my self-examination towards God. As I move into reviewing my feelings of consolation and desolation, a posture of gratitude provides the lenses I need to recognize God’s presence and gifts in both the painful and the pleasing.

The Spiritual Exercises close with an invitation of “Contemplation of the Love of God.” These instructions for contemplation also begin with gratitude, "I ask God to give me an intimate knowledge of the many gifts I have received, that filled with gratitude for all, I may in all things love and serve the Divine Majesty." Ignatius celebrates gratitude and gives it a foundational place in relationship with God and others. These closing weeks of the year I intend to practice the examen regularly. I look forward to the space it will provide to not only recognize God’s gifts and grace in my life, but also joyfully respond in worship and thanksgiving.

(1) “Rummaging for God: Praying Backward Through Your Day,” Dennis Hamm (America: The National Catholic Weekly, May 14, 1994). 
(http://ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/rummaging-for-god-praying-backward-through-your-day/)

some favorite quotes on gratitude....

I've posted some of these quotes before, but thought they were worth resharing this Thanksgiving week.

“Gratitude…is a response to grace. The compassionate life is a grateful life, and actions born out of gratefulness are not compulsive but free, not somber but joyful, not fanatical but liberating. When gratitude is the source of our actions, our giving becomes receiving and those to whom we minister become our ministers." 

(Henri Nouwen in Compassion)

“To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything He has given us – and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to a new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not be hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference…Gratitude is therefore the heart of the solitary life, as it is the heart of the Christian life.”

(Thomas Merton in Thoughts in Solitude)

“Gratitude takes nothing for granted. It acknowledges each favor, each gift – both big and small. It also recognizes the giver…Gratitude recognizes that a gift has been given, a favor has been done by someone. There is a gift and a giver. But there is more. Gratitude also calls for a response to that gift. We thank the giver with an expression of appreciation – a handshake, a hug, a note. A gesture of gratitude completes the exchange, closes the circle, let’s the love flow back to the giver.”

“God is the giver. We are the thanks-givers…As gestures of gratitude unite us on a human level, they also unite us with the divine Giver. God offers gracious gifts, covenantal blessings, summarized in ‘You Belong.’ In response we say, ‘Thanks! I am grateful!’ We embrace God’s acceptance of us and in turn are embraced…Our social gestures of thanks, like a handshake or a letter, correspond to our religious gestures, like sacrifice, worship, obedience. Religious gestures are our way of saying to God, ‘Thank you for all the good things that come from you, the Source of all life.’”

“Gratitude as recognition, receptivity, and response is a basic attitude and action of the Christian life. We not only recognize and are aware of God’s gifts to us, but we also continually find ways of saying thanks to God in worship, prayer, and ‘whatever we say or do.’ Our aim is to live our whole life as a sacred gesture of thanksgiving, a deep bow of gratitude, solidifying our relationship with God.”

(Don Postema in Space for God)

Prayers of Thanksgiving & Gratitude

Click here for a collection of prayers posted on Prayers & Creeds blog...Prayers of Thanksgiving & Gratitude

Prayer of Gratitude

As I was reflecting on gratitude for my recent This Ignatian Life blog post, I stumbled upon this prayer of gratitude...

Intimate knowledge. 
That's what I ask you for, Lord.
I want that insight, that understanding, that knowledge
that will be about our intimacy.

Many gifts.
Let me count the ways you have loved me.
The gifts of your love.
All that you have given me.
All that I am.
I so often look at my shortcomings.
Let me see the gifts.
All of them.

Filled with gratitude. 
Fill me, Lord, with gratitude.
Let my heart,
sometimes filled with so much else,
be filled with thanksgiving.
Give me the feelings of gratitude,
of a grateful heart.

Joy, freedom, peace, generosity.
In all things love and serve.
Let the overflowing gratitude in my heart
touch all the things and people in my life.
Every thought, word and deed.
Every hurt, every slight, every loss.
Every reaction and response.
Every opportunity and choice.
Every offering of myself.
In all,
let me love and serve you.

Amen.

Taken from:
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/p-33-iask.html
(Author not found.)

gestures of gratitude

Today our WMF community will enjoy an American Thanksgiving here in Buenos Aires with turkey and all the traditional fixins'. We will throw in some good 'ol Argentina beef, so we don't forget where we are! (And because turkeys are too expensive to buy two.) The Forcattos will host a full house later today, nine adults and five kids. Off to play some Norteamericano futbol at the park in a little bit to get the day started.

Pulled out some of my favorite quotes on gratitude to get the day started. Happy Thanksgiving all!

“God is the giver. We are the thanks-givers…As gestures of gratitude unite us on a human level, they also unite us with the divine Giver. God offers gracious gifts, covenantal blessings, summarized in ‘You Belong.’ In response we say, ‘Thanks! I am grateful!’ We embrace God’s acceptance of us and in turn are embraced…Our social gestures of thanks, like a handshake or a letter, correspond to our religious gestures, like sacrifice, worship, obedience. Religious gestures are our way of saying to God, ‘Thank you for all the good things that come from you, the Source of all life.’”

“Gratitude as recognition, receptivity, and response is a basic attitude and action of the Christian life. We not only recognize and are aware of God’s gifts to us, but we also continually find ways of saying thanks to God in worship, prayer, and ‘whatever we say or do.’ Our aim is to live our whole life as a sacred gesture of thanksgiving, a deep bow of gratitude, solidifying our relationship with God.”

(Taken from Space for God by Don Postema)