Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude
William C. Graham

​One of the parishes in which I once worked had a young fellow go off to the seminary after high school. He was a good young man from a good family. He was eager and pleasant and ready to test himself and his vocation.

I was impressed that the folks in the parish were supportive and kind and encouraging. I knew that some of them were quite generous in gifts they gave to help him along the way.

It troubled me a bit that I had not heard him thanking the people who were his patrons. I knew that he had been raised to be more thoughtful, but somehow that lesson seemed not to take.

One August, as he prepared to go back to school, I wrapped up a gift for him, a box of notecards and a booklet of postage stamps. I included a note congratulating him on his success as a student and seminarian thus far, and suggested that if he were to become the kind of priest he wanted to be, if he were to be the kind of Christian he had been raised to be, it was essential to cultivate an attitude of gratitude, being sure to thank God for blessings received, and also to thank those friends and family members and parishioners who helped him along the way.

I thought that was pretty good advice from an older priest to a hope-filled student, especially since we are a Eucharistic people; giving thanks is what we do.

Before I wrapped the notecards and stamps, I opened the box, took out the second envelope, addressed it to myself at my home address, put a stamp on the envelope, and tucked it back in its place. I wrapped it up, gave the box to him before his departure with warm wishes and
prayers for a safe journey and a successful academic year.

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I looked forward to getting my self-addressed thank you note, hoping that he’d appreciate my hint, and also thank me for reminding him about what his parents and his faithful participation in the Eucharist had taught him over all those years.

I waited to get the card in the mail. I waited some more. I’m still waiting. But: it’s been twenty years! Maybe it got lost in the mail.

In the opening prayer for Mass today, the Collect, we asked: “Show favor, O Lord, to your servants / and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace, / that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity, / they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands” (Fifteenth Sunday of
Ordinary Time).

When we ask God to increase his gifts of grace, does it not seem essential that we be aware of the gifts? If we are aware of them, and seek to use them profitably, doesn’t it seem essential that we tell the story of receiving those gifts, and in the telling, let our gratitude be known?

Jesus tells us about the wheat and the weeds growing together, but in the end, the wheat is gathered into the barn, and the weeds are sent off to be burned.

It seems to me that we all would rather be the wheat than the weeds. 

The prayer after communion today will alert us how that winnowing process will work: “Graciously be present to your people, O Lord, / and lead those you have imbued with heavenly mysteries / to pass from former ways to newness of life.”

The path to newness of life in God’s kingdom is illumined by his word and is paved with the good deeds of the saints. The soundtrack accompanying the procession is the shouts of glad thanksgiving of all the holy ones.