Saint Martin's Cloak

Almighty God, creator and sustainer of all life, It is our duty and our privilege to give you thanks for your loving care. We thank you for the many blessings you have given us over this past year. We thank you … For food to eat and clothes to wear, For shelter from the heat of summer and the cold of winter, For the fruitfulness of farms and factories and fertile minds, For safety in our homes and in our homeland, For health and happiness of every sort, And, perhaps most of all, for friends and family who love us. As citizens of these United States, we are also grateful for the civil and religious freedom we enjoy. We thank you for the labors of all those who have who have secured these many blessings for us, especially for those who serve in our nation’s armed forces. Watch over our brothers and sisters in arms who today are far from home. Heal those who are suffering from the grief and wounds of war, and provide for all those in need. We pray for your continued care and ...

If you want to be resilient, be thankful. And if you want to be thankful, be hopeful. That might be the message of the American Thanksgiving Day. You can see the connection between resilience and thanksgiving in our national history. From the story of the pilgrims at Plymouth to Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation, Americans seem to give thanks best when things are at their worst. The connection between thanksgiving and perseverance are visible in the Biblical story as well. From the days of the first Passover Seder to the last supper of Jesus, from the possessing of Canaan to the tribulations of the messiah, God’s people have known that faith calls us to give thanks in times of adversity as well as in times of ease. <!-- wp:more --> <!--more--> <!-- /wp:more --> If you want to be resilient, then, give thanks. But how can you tell people to be thankful? Isn’t thankfulness an emotion? Isn’t it the case that one either feels thankful or doesn’t? ...