Prayer

If the only prayer you say in your whole life is “thank you”  that will be enough.

Creating our Own Future

We can create our own future through the amazing power of gratitude.

Thank You

“Thank you” are two of the most powerful words in any language, but they may very well be the most under-used.

Thanksgiving

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts; no Americans have been more impoverished than they, who, nevertheless, set aside a day of THANKSGIVING.

 

Key to a Happy Life

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful,         then no matter how much we have, we will not be happy, because we will always want to have          something else or something more.

 

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

 

Loved Ones

 

I am thankful for the piles of laundry and ironing because it means my loved ones are nearby.

 

For Granted or Gratitude

When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them                 with gratitude.

Home

I am thankful for a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need         fixing because it means I have a HOME.

Focus on the Good

If you concentrate on what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.

Counting Blessings

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

Affects of Gratitude

Gratitude can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home and a stranger into a friend.

The Heart

Gratitude is always wholehearted—our whole person is engaged in it—the heart is the symbol of the whole person.

Joy

Joy is the outward sign and true expression of gratitude.

Celebrating the Bond

Gift-giving is a celebration of the bond between the giver and the receiver—that bond is                 gratitude.

Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart

To be always open for surprise, for gratitude, we need to awaken the child in us so that we may        see with the eyes of the heart.

Circle of Gratitude

The circle of gratitude is not complete until the giver of the gift becomes the receiver—a                 receiver of gratitude.

Whole-Hearted Gesture

Gratitude is a gesture of the whole heart.

Going Beyond Myself

Gratitude always goes beyond myself for what makes something a gift is precisely that it is given—the receiver depends on the giver.

Gifts

Gratitude enables me to be amazed at the gifts I take for granted—a flower as an expression               of surprise, the sky as a marvelous piece of art.

Moments of Surprise

Feast of St Athanasius, bishop/doctor of Church

Moments of surprise—a rainbow, a sunset, a thunderstorm—teach us that everything is a gift, a gift to be grateful for.

Gratitude

May – GRATITUDE

We commit ourselves to live a life of gratitude--awakening daily to the wonder of God’s presence everywhere.

Text:  Live this life and do whatever is done in a spirit of thanks, praise and blessing.   Prologue   

 Thursday, May 1  Feast of St Joseph the Worker

  Surprise is the beginning of gratitude; only if we are aware of the world around us can gratitude

  become our basic attitude toward life.