Luke 17:11-19
One of ten, is that even a good ratio? One in ten, and he was a Samaritan, not a Jew, not someone who worshipped the God of Israel the right way. This is the only one to come back and offer thanks. Thanks for healing me, where are the other nine?
I don't think it was intentional on the other nines part not to come back and give thanks. You can only imagine the freedom, they left and now, if they are a true Jew, they have to go to the temple, be inspected by the priests, do the ritual bath because they were unclean and then, then you can go home. Tonight for the first time in years, they get to go home. No more wandering the street, no more calling out unclean and having everyone scatter before you, no more living and sleeping on the edge of town. Home with people you haven't seen in years. So only one comes back and he is a Samaritan.
How often do you think to be grateful? I didn't realize how much it had slipped away until I started doing the examen every night, what are your grateful for today? The question stumped me, grateful? Do I have anything today to be grateful for? Then you start going over your day, oh yeah there was this encounter, this beauty, this wonder, this everyday occurrence. I think this is how easy it is to slip away. We get caught up in the worlds hardness, in life's everyday tragedies and we forget to find the places of gift.
These places of gift during our day require us to give thanks. The examen is a tool from Ignatius, in it you are to look over your day and give thanks for the blessings. It develops your thankfulness day by day, growing it more and more as you find things everyday to be thankful for.
We give thanks in our Eucharist, opening communion with God in the great thanksgiving, opening our hearts is a part of thanks. When we open our hearts, "lifting the up to the Lord" we find true passion in giving thanks. Thanking Jesus for our life, for those who have touched our lives, for those things which remind us of the holy. These are all the depths of gratitude.
In the silence, is another place to cultivate times of gratitude. Waiting in traffic, sitting in a favorite place, or just in our daily chores we can find places where thankfulness turns the task into something richer and more fulfilling. Thankfulness gives a gift to us that keeps on giving inside and out.
It is important then to remember this story of the leper who came back. His healing was enriched by coming back and saying thanks instead of going home. He delayed this so he could go back and encounter Jesus once again. To lay the offering of thanks for his joy. It is the one thing we don't have at the end of the story, but we can imagine the joy he felt once we start cultivating our own practices of gratitude. They become divine indicators of our own spiritual path and make us more attuned to the eternal joys we share.
So start cultivating your own practices of gratitude. You will find the shift of your focus become more enriching day by day. You will find it is a never ending parade of deep joy in the divine.
One of ten, is that even a good ratio? One in ten, and he was a Samaritan, not a Jew, not someone who worshipped the God of Israel the right way. This is the only one to come back and offer thanks. Thanks for healing me, where are the other nine?
I don't think it was intentional on the other nines part not to come back and give thanks. You can only imagine the freedom, they left and now, if they are a true Jew, they have to go to the temple, be inspected by the priests, do the ritual bath because they were unclean and then, then you can go home. Tonight for the first time in years, they get to go home. No more wandering the street, no more calling out unclean and having everyone scatter before you, no more living and sleeping on the edge of town. Home with people you haven't seen in years. So only one comes back and he is a Samaritan.
How often do you think to be grateful? I didn't realize how much it had slipped away until I started doing the examen every night, what are your grateful for today? The question stumped me, grateful? Do I have anything today to be grateful for? Then you start going over your day, oh yeah there was this encounter, this beauty, this wonder, this everyday occurrence. I think this is how easy it is to slip away. We get caught up in the worlds hardness, in life's everyday tragedies and we forget to find the places of gift.
These places of gift during our day require us to give thanks. The examen is a tool from Ignatius, in it you are to look over your day and give thanks for the blessings. It develops your thankfulness day by day, growing it more and more as you find things everyday to be thankful for.
We give thanks in our Eucharist, opening communion with God in the great thanksgiving, opening our hearts is a part of thanks. When we open our hearts, "lifting the up to the Lord" we find true passion in giving thanks. Thanking Jesus for our life, for those who have touched our lives, for those things which remind us of the holy. These are all the depths of gratitude.
In the silence, is another place to cultivate times of gratitude. Waiting in traffic, sitting in a favorite place, or just in our daily chores we can find places where thankfulness turns the task into something richer and more fulfilling. Thankfulness gives a gift to us that keeps on giving inside and out.
It is important then to remember this story of the leper who came back. His healing was enriched by coming back and saying thanks instead of going home. He delayed this so he could go back and encounter Jesus once again. To lay the offering of thanks for his joy. It is the one thing we don't have at the end of the story, but we can imagine the joy he felt once we start cultivating our own practices of gratitude. They become divine indicators of our own spiritual path and make us more attuned to the eternal joys we share.
So start cultivating your own practices of gratitude. You will find the shift of your focus become more enriching day by day. You will find it is a never ending parade of deep joy in the divine.
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