Thanksgiving Day is one of my favorite holidays, because this national celebration in the United States evokes so many themes that align with my sense of faith.
Indeed, this past Sunday, I attended the OPRF Community of Congregations Interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Service, held at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in the West Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago. The choir got us started off with an exuberant song, "Enter His Gates", which nearly raised the roof, to mention our mood, based on Psalm 100, which calls us to enter the presence of God with thanksgiving and praise.
Indeed, I enter before God's presence this day with great thanksgiving. Certainly, I feel that once I get started with pondering all I'm grateful for, it's easy to compile a long list, as I'm sure others notice.
Yet on this particular Thanksgiving Day in 2019, I'm especially thankful for two main reasons:
It was 27 years ago this day that my family moved from the North Side of Chicago to Oak Park. Indeed, it was a memorable day that I became a resident of Oak Park, the place I have cherished as home.
And in the midst of all my celebrations of Illinois's Bicentennial, Oak Park has taken on added significance as the place where I've put down roots, so that I can call Illinois my home.
As I've mentioned before, it was great growing up in Oak Park and to have lived here for so long. I enjoy easy access to the amenities of Chicago, while being in a community with its own distinct identity. There's easy access to getting around Oak Park, and this village has much to offer.
Many experiences I've had in my home in Oak Park have shaped me in many profound ways, especially my middle school years at Julian. I also say this about my home parish, Ascension, on Oak Park's South side, which continues to have a profound impact on me to this day.
And the other noteworthy reason that gives me much reason to celebrate today is that 6 years ago on Thanksgiving Day, on November 28, 2013, I served as a Eucharistic minister at Mass for the first time. Having graduated from college a few months prior, I was riding a wave with a vibrant spiritual faith life, and I channeled my zeal by taking on additional opportunities of ministry at Church. and what a great setting to render this ministry service, that day 6 years ago, on a day of Thanksgiving, gathered together at Church to celebrate the Eucharist, which is from a Greek word for "Thanksgiving". It was all the more fitting to serve as Eucharistic minister once again today. (I also note that today is the birthday of my baptismal godmother, my Aunt Terri--yet another reason to celebrate.)
And the Eucharist experience we share as a church community speaks to the way of life God calls us to when we depart from the gathering at Mass, a life of thanks offering. Mass motivates us, as we plead God for His mercy, and then receive instruction from His Word and nourishment from His Body and Blood to live in a way that rightly responds to His goodness.
When we give thanks to God, we behold Who He is, especially as the Source of what we have in life. And our thanksgiving gives way to our response to God, as we live a life devoted to Him, constantly offering Him thanks for all we have by the way we live, sharing with others the goodness He bestows on us day by day.
The goodness I find in the life of faith is something I'm eager to share with my Religious Education students. I've had a great time teaching RE once again this year. I can't help but notice the ways I've connected with the students I have on Tuesday evenings, especially at the end of class when at least one student offers thanks to my co-catechist Nelson and me. While I may not know for certain the specific reasons we get thanks, I sense that the expression of thank you is born from the meaningful experience the students are having each time they are in RE class.
Indeed, it's amazing to behold how we encounter the goodness of God's presence throughout our lives. We encounter it especially in being together and sharing love with one another. It's like what Marcy tells Charlie Brown in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, about how this holiday is more than just eating, and is about thankfulness for being together. And what a gift it is to respond by offering our thanks and living in a way that shows it day by day.
We are truly connected in thanksgiving.
All my relations.
Thanks be to God.
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