Once on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Rob Petrie was asked to write a letter of recommendation for an old friend. To make it easier, the friend wrote the letter himself, and Rob only had to sign it. In the letter, the friend exaggerated his skills. He said, for instance, that he spoke four languages. As it turned out, he knew the word for “yes” in four languages. That got me to thinking that there are certain words that we generally know in a number of different languages. I take that as a sign that these are some of the most important expressions we have, if they become that familiar even in a foreign tongue. Take, for instance, words or phrases such as merci boucoup, grazie, danke schön or gracias. Everyone knows the English equivalent: “Thank you.”
Gratitude is so important to us. Primarily, we owe our gratitude to God, from Whom all good things come. So this Thursday, we have our special day for giving thanks to God for all His blessings. I have always loved the expression of thanks in a Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer available for weekday masses: “For, although you have no need of our praise, yet our thanksgiving is itself your gift, since our praises add nothing to your greatness but profit us for our salvation.” Gratitude to God helps us to be more open to His goodness in so many ways. In His love, He always wants the best for us.
In expressing our gratitude to God, we recognize that many of His gifts come from the love we show one another. So in thanking God, we also thank one another. I find that kind of gratitude especially important, for I am so thankful for the wonderful community that I have here at St. Malachy Parish. I get so many reminders of God’s blessing on a day-to-day basis, with the fantastic staff, with the volunteers in our parish liturgies and all our parish organizations, with the children of St. Malachy School and CCD who always bring a smile to my face, and all who make this such a wonderful parish for a priest to enjoy his ministry.
On a related note, since my mother’s death in 1992, my Thanksgiving tradition has been to celebrate the holiday with my sister in Fredericksburg, Virginia. So I will be away this week from Sunday afternoon through Friday evening. But as our prayers center on thoughts of gratitude, please know that all of St. Malachy Parish will have a special place in my prayers this week.
Finally, I must admit that I used the Internet to make sure of my spelling of the French, Italian German and Spanish above, and I found quite a few others. So I address you now in various languages. In Hawaiian, Mahalo nui loa. In Hebrew, Toda raba. In Latin, Gracia tibi ago. In Norwegian, Takk. In Sanskrit, Anugurihiitosumi. And in Elvis, Thank you. Thank you very much.
Father H
