And now,
bless the God of all, who has done wondrous things on earth; who fosters people’s growth from their mother’s womb, and fashions them
according to his will! May he grant you
joy of heart and may peace abide among
you. Sirach 50:22-23
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?” Luke 17:15-18
Piety
Lord, we
thank you for the goodness of our people and for the spirit of justice that
fills this nation. We thank you for the
beauty and fullness of the land and the challenge of the cities. We thank you for our work and our rest, for
one another, and for our homes. We thank
you, Lord: accept our thanksgiving on this day.
We pray and give thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Study
The foreign leper makes an
intentional choice. He and his
companions experience an encounter with Jesus.
Some go off on their own way. The
lesson we learn from the foreign leper is that he returns to the Lord in
thanksgiving. He recognizes that the
encounter changes him and changes the way he should live out his life.
Action
In addition to the normal readings
for Thursday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time, the magisterium also
provides a set of readings for the uniquely American holiday of Thanksgiving.
Those readings align with the Gospel from the closing Mass of the Men’s 103rd
Cursillo in Arlington, VA.
The point of the Cursillo
experience is that once we encounter Jesus on the mountaintop, we need to stay
connected to Him and the mission He has for us in life. Even though it can be hard to stay so focused
without the support of our friends and community, Cursillo gives us methods to
stay focused and supported. We mark our
continuing experience by choosing to intentionally incorporate piety, study and
action in our daily lives.
Thanksgiving is a day that
is meant to change how we sleepwalk through out lives without considering the
help we get from others. In some ways,
joined with Christmas and Easter, it is an ideal day to align with our Cursillo
experience. The Daily Examen is a practice
that can strengthen our Fourth Day and help us emulate the Samaritan. The five steps of this practice include:
1. Become aware of God’s presence.
2. Review the day with gratitude.
3. Pay attention to your emotions.
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from
it.
5. Look toward tomorrow.
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