- Thanksgiving Day, U.S.
In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison
(Take a few moments to thank God for whatever the Spirit brings to your mind.)
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SIR 50:22-24; PS 145:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11
LK 17:11-19
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten persons with leprosy met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying,
“Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”
And when he saw them, he said,
“Go show yourselves to the priests.”
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?”
Then he said to him, “Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you.”
Reflection on the Scriptures |
All the readings for today emphasize God’s gracious goodness, compassion and mercy. Our gospel tells us a familiar passage of Jesus curing the ten lepers. By law, he sends them to the priests to recognize their healing, but the one “foreigner” returned to Jesus to give thanks. Jesus himself wonders where are the others? Do they not want to thank God? The leper can easily represent
anyone on the margins or the healing we all need within our own lives. Do we remember to give praise and thanks for God’s mercy even when we may not understand or get our expected outcomes? God is present and walks with each of us on our own migration into God as pilgrims on the way to the fullness of the reign of God.
by Sr. Candice Tucci, OSF
Revelations of Divine Love
- by Julian of Norwich
Fifteenth Revelation, Chapter 66
“All was closed, and I saw no more.” “For the folly of feeling a little bodily pain I unwisely lost for the time the comfort of all this blessed Shewing of our Lord God”
AND after this the good Lord shewed the Sixteenth [Revelation] on the night following, as I shall tell after: which Sixteenth was conclusion and confirmation to all fifteen.
But first me behoveth to tell you as anent my feebleness, wretchedness and blindness.—I have said in the beginning: And in this [moment] all my pain was suddenly taken from me: of which pain I had no grief nor distress as long as the fifteen Shewings lasted following. And at the end all was close, and I saw no more. And soon I felt that I should live and languish; and anon my
sickness came again: first in my head with a sound and a din, and suddenly all my body was fulfilled with sickness like as it was afore. And I was as barren and as dry as [if] I never had comfort but little. And as a wretched creature I moaned and cried for feeling of my bodily pains and for failing of comfort, spiritual and bodily.
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