Giving Thanks

As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten persons with leprosy met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying,
?Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!?
And when he saw them, he said,
?Go show yourselves to the priests.?
As they were going they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply,
?Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine?
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God??
Then he said to him, ?Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you.? (Lk 17:11-19)

On this day, in the United States, we celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving. While we all have much to be thankful for, we sometimes take our blessings for granted. For many people who are struggling with unemployment, loneliness or illness it’s understandably difficult to “be thankful”. However, every single person in the world has been blessed by the opportunity to live forever in heaven, due to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Let’s try to spend a few minutes today contemplating God’s providence in our lives – family, friends, possessions, jobs and anything else which has been given to us. Like the “foreigner” in the above gospel passage, we can say a prayer of thanksgiving for these blessings. No matter how much suffering or difficulties we may be encountering, we can all thank Our Lord for loving us so much that he was willing to die a painful death so that we can live forever!
Thank you, Jesus and Happy Thanksgiving to all!
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