11/12/2014 – Wednesday of 32nd week in ordinary time – Luke 17:11-19–

      Today’s Gospel is the same Gospel that we will hear on Thanksgiving day, which makes a lot of sense because this Gospel reading is all about giving thanks. Jesus cleansed ten lepers that day, but only one of the lepers gave glory to God and expressed his thanks and appreciation, falling to his feet in gratitude.  I wonder if the other lepers were too focused on the new-found freedom and new-found opportunities that they did not think about going back.  In our modern society today, we often take things for granted and perhaps expect certain things in our lives with a sense of entitlement.  Meister Eckhart, a German Dominican priest from the 14^th century who was a great theologian and mystic said this: “If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, then that would suffice.”  What great wisdom this is for us.  Giving thanks is a genuine fruit of being a follower of Christ, of being able to feel this gratitude and thankfulness as a foundational sense of our very being. 

     St. Josaphat is the saint we celebrate today.  Perhaps he is not very well-known to us.  Josaphat was a Basilian monk from the late 16th & early 17th centuries, who later was ordained a priest & became the Archbishop of Polotsk, a region in current day Belarus. Most of the monks in his area did not want to join in union with Rome, fearing interference in their liturgy & customs.  However, by catechetical instruction, synods, reform of the clergy, and his personal example, Josaphat was successful in winning the greater part of the Orthodox faithful in that area to union with Rome.  Due to fear of this union, Josaphat was struck down, shot, and his body was thrown into the river.  His remains were recovered and are now buried in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.  Josaphat was the first saint of the Eastern Church to be canonized by Rome. It is sometimes hard to give thanks in the difficult circumstances we face in our lives.  I think of the challenges and turmoil that Josaphat faced in his life, yet through his life and his actions, he served the Lord with joy, courage, and thanksgiving.  As we approach the national holiday of Thanksgiving later this month, may we feel a sense of thanksgiving in our lives and express this joyful thankfulness in the way we live out our faith.

11/13/2013 –Wednesday of 32nd week in Ordinary Time - Luke 17:11-19 – St Francis Xavier Cabrini –

      As we hear the leper giving glory to God for the healing that he had his life, we might wonder: In our own lives, how often do we show our thanks and gratitude to God and to others?  In our modern world, we have so much occupying our time and we are pulled in so many different directions. Often, we often don’t take the time to express our gratitude and our thankfulness.  Such an attitude might not even cross our minds. Since we in our society are so used to our comfortable modern lifestyle, perhaps we have a sense of entitlement as well – perhaps we don’t even feel the sense of gratitude and thankfulness that perhaps our parents’ and grandparents’ generation felt, where the struggle for daily survival was much more difficult. 

         The saint we celebrate today is St Francis Xavier Cabrini, a woman who felt the call to become a nun when she was a teenager growing up in Italy in the middle of the 19^th century, but due to her ill health and her need to help her large family, she was not allowed to enter the convent.  After working at a school for girls after her parents’ death, at the request of her Bishop she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, an order established to care for poor children in schools and hospitals.  Pope Leo XIII asked her to come to the United States with 6 other nuns from her order in 1889 to work among the Italian immigrants.  She did much work with the immigrant population in the US, founding school, hospitals, and orphanages.  She died in Chicago in 1917.  The Cambrini-Green public housing project in downtown Chicago was named after her.  She was canonized a saint in 1946, the first American citizen to receive such an honor.  She is the patron saint of immigrants. 

          As we think of St Francis Xavier Cabrini and so many of the other saints, may we see them as great examples of the thanksgiving and gratitude all of us should live on our journey of faith. 

11/14/2012 – Luke 17:11-19 – Wednesday of 32nd week in ordinary time –

      Today’s Gospel is the same Gospel that we will hear on Thanksgiving day, which makes a lot of sense because the Gospel is all about giving thanks.  Ten lepers were cleansed that day by Jesus, but only one of the lepers gave glory to God and expressed his thanks and appreciation to Jesus, falling to his feet.  In our modern society today, we often take things for granted and expect certain things in our lives with a sense of entitlement.  I recently did the funeral mass for Gloria Harper, a long-time member of our parish in Yazoo City.  Her daughters expressed to me how Gloria was always so thankful and grateful for anything you did for her.  If you made her a sandwich for lunch, she genuinely expressed how she felt that the sandwich was the best she ever had.  It is wonderful and joyful to see people who have this genuine sense of thankfulness and gratitude in their lives.  This is a genuine fruit of being a follower of Christ, of being able to feel this thankfulness as a foundational sense of our very being.  Especially as we approach the national holiday of Thanksgiving next week, may we feel a sense of thanksgiving in our lives and express this joyful thankfulness in the way we live out our faith.