Thanksgiving Journal

Gaudete Sunday

I recently read an article about keeping a thanksgiving diary, in which one lists ten things each day that one is thankful for. In my Advent journal yesterday, I wrote I wanted to focus on the virtue of GRATITUDE for the rest of the season. These two ideas seem to be a good fit to this pilgrim.

For

the grace to stand in your presence and minister to you in your sacrament of Eucharist with my wife and son on the Lord's Day
being a member of your parish of St. Lawrence, in Asheville which the Bishop has chosen as a pilgrimage site for the Jubilee Year of Mercy
having found "the zone" in my 3 mile run
the beautiful cool-down walk Jessica and I took afterwards
Sunday breakfasts with my parents
Shelle our realtor who is awesome and patient and a lot of fun
finding a house worth making an offer on, that we might make into our domestic church
lunch with the Vine and running into RCIA folks
Sabbath time with Jessica and naps
great friends with whom to celebrate (congrats, Ryan! on finishing graduate school)

Deo Gratias!

Comments

Introducing The Good Reverend Pudgemuffin

My favorite gentleman in the blogosphere is currently the Good Reverend Pudgemuffin at Are You There God? It's me, Atheist. He is a wonderful and impassioned seeker of Truth with regards to the existence of God, and from his blog's title, you can guess what side of the fence he falls. He is a fellow Ashevillain, and I highly regard his thinking and enjoy his irreverent skepticism which is humorous and critical without being snarkily polemical. Inspired, I wrote a lengthy reply to one of his entries, and he in turn devoted a whole entry in response to my response . Not to be outdone, I composed a response to the response's response, which I planned to keep hidden within his comments, but it far exceeded (more than double) the character limits. So thus ....

Noisy Gongs and Clashing Cymbals

To what shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, 'We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not weep.' For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man has come eating and drinking; and you say, 'Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by all her children. — Luke 7:31-35 , Gospel for the Wednesday of the 24th Week of the Year In which the Pilgrim tries to quiet his heart of all the noise of criticism and complaint against Mother Church and learn to dwell in silence and love listening only for the Voice of God.

But now ...

Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the Kingdom of God? ... That is what some of you used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. —St Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 6:11 "But now ..." what words of comfort to us sinners. St. Paul reminds us that before we were plunged into the death of Christ by Baptism, we were defined by our sins. "That is what some of you used to be ." But now, though sinners we remain and continue to sin the face of grace, we are no longer defined by them. Rather than conforming to an image of death, we have been restored to the image of Christ in which we were made.

Our Lady of Ashes

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