Thanksgiving Day 2023

Reflection based on Luke 17:11-19

Help me turn to you with tears of gratefulness

The cleansed leper understood how his pain separated him from himself and people he loved. The recipient of healing turned to Jesus with tears of unbounded gratitude. The encounter with Jesus freed him.

I beg God for such unalterable joy because I/we:

Look back with blinders. I see hollow choices and bad decisions. From such myopia, I view how I wish life would have been.  Help me turn to you, to reframe what has happened in the past.  

Weave illusive stories.  As I gaze over my shoulder, I continue to tell stories that made me look good, even at the expensive of others. Help me gaze into your eyes, the only story of gratitude that is real.

Thrive on my unkind words. My words still compare and condemn. Words pierce like arrows and harshness becomes a sling hurling rock. Help me turn with words that set me free, words from our prayerful encounters.

Build a home with regret. Shame protects me like a stack of bricks. That house of darkness does not have windows. Let me bask in the light of your presence, the ways in which you desire to heal me.

Cling to what should be. Help me surrender to your desire for me. Help me turn back to you and not into my own mirror. In you, I find full-faced gratitude and inner joy.

Feast only on bitter remarks. Help me turn to you with praise and thanks ever upon my lips. Help me sit down at altar tables with others who share such a feast of love.  

Amen