Giving Thanks

If it were the last evening of my life, and I were facing a terrible death, would I think of giving thanks? It’s more likely that I’d be a nervous wreck! If I were faced with thousands of hungry people, and all I had were five loaves and two fish, would I even take the time to be grateful? I’d probably just panic! Jesus gave thanks. That blows my mind. It’s a sign of his boundless trust in the Father. If you give thanks to the Father in a terribly difficult situation, you obviously trust him enormously. All Jesus had in his hands was something radically insufficient, but the loving gratitude of Jesus opens the gateway to abundance, because his gratitude enables the Father’s generosity to show itself. If you give thanks when everything around you is falling apart, that act of giving thanks helps you to hold things together, and it helps you to hold yourself together as well.

Excerpted from The Mindful Our Father  by Thomas J Casey SJ (pp.101-102)