Thanksgiving
The ‘getting’ in giving thanks BY FATHER WILLIAM LAGO Special Contributor
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uick, take a moment and think of five things you are thankful for. Before the rest of the article, I ask you to reflect on your experience for a few moments. What kinds of things were you thankful for? What motivated you to be thankful for them?Most importantly, do you see God as the source of each of these five things? We read in Scripture: “Do not be deceived, my beloved: all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” ( James 1, 16-17). Two more questions: What does giving thanks to God mean to you? How does it affect you? Giving thanks to God is foundational to the Catholic faith. Thanksgiving is one of the prayer types in our faith (To remember them, I use the acronym ACTS: Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication). “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving.” St. Gianna Beretta Molla said: “The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for what he is sending us every day in his goodness.”
We really get more than we realize in the prayer of thanksgiving. We get so much more than we give in thanking God – we get happiness for starters. The “attitude of gratitude” lifts us up to God, who is active and present to me in all moments of my day. At Mass, my giving thanks leads to “getting” (really receiving) Jesus in the Eucharist. We really get more than we realize in the prayer of thanksgiving. God is perfect and doesn’t need my thanks. As one prayer at Mass offers:
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“Our thanksgiving is itself your gift, since our praises add nothing to your greatness but profit us for salvation.” In giving thanks we get salvation! In practicing the virtue of thanksgiving, God’s grace becomes apparent to me. It’s like a treasure hunt. In knowing I have to have a list of five things at the end of my day, I go through my day with much more awareness of God’s action, God’s providence. My prayer of thanksgiving leads to a deeper appreciation for God and leads to closer union with God. That union is salvation. A landmark study in the “Journal of Personality and Social Psychology” stated: “Gratitude is effective in increasing well-being as it builds psychological, social and spiritual resources. Gratitude inspires prosocial reciprocity, and indeed is one of the primary psychological mechanisms thought to underlie reciprocal altruism. … Gratitude is a form of love, a consequence of an already formed attachment as well as a precipitating condition for the formation of
new affectional bonds. Gratitude is also likely to build and strengthen a sense of spirituality, given the strong historical association between gratitude and religion. Finally… it also facilitates coping with stress and adversity. Gratitude not only makes people feel good in the present, but it also increases the likelihood that people will function optimally and feel good in the future” (Robert A. Emmons and Michael E. McCullough, “Journal of Personality and Social Psychology” 2003, Vol. 84, No. 2, 377-389). Like any virtue, the virtue of thanking God needs time to develop and be experienced over the course of a few weeks. Pick a time that is good for you and your family, perhaps at dinner or at the end of the day before the kids go to sleep. You can each think of five things and each share one or two, along with a reason why, and then all can join in a common “Thank you, God” as a prayer response. After each week, ask yourselves how Continued on 23
November 2021 THE MONITOR MAGAZINE 17
