Re: Virtues: Gratitude
Fr: Excerpted from Bishop Charles Chaput (2007 Nov 22). “Thanksgiving: Acknowledging our dependence on God.” The Bishop Speaks. http://www.catholicexchange.com/node/67533
"The Roman statesman Cicero once said that, "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." Gratitude expresses our dependence on others. By its nature, it leads to humility and wisdom, because a grateful heart understands than none of us is really independent. We have obligations to each other. We also have needs from each other. We're designed to depend on each other as a family; and to depend as a family on God.
"… Thanksgiving is a call to Christians to recover who we really are: children of God with family duties to each other. Gratitude leads to humility; to seeing our true place in creation. And humility is the beginning of sanity - the clarity of mind to see what's right, what's wrong, what needs to be done, and the willingness to do it.
"… The Protestant Christians who began this tradition nearly 400 years ago practiced their gratitude in the midst of scarcity, disease, high mortality and a harsh new land. Precisely because of their suffering, they understood their own limitations; their radical dependence on God."
This article is courtesy of the Denver Catholic Register.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment