Gratitude

We have thousands of opportunities every day to be grateful: for having good weather, to have slept well last night, to be able to get up, to be healthy, to have enough to eat...There's opportunity upon opportunity to be grateful; that's what life is.

Br. David Steindl-Rast

We have so much to be grateful for each day. When we are grateful, we are happy. Pope Francis speaks often of joy. God wants us to be joyful. What must we do to cultivate joy? I think of the line from a song I remember: "Every cloud has a silver lining." 

I love this quote I copied from Pope Francis last January:

"God walks along the deep paths of our lives and responds to our longing for love and happiness by calling us to joy." 

A few days later: "Joy, prayer, gratitude are three ways that help us live authentically." 

And a day later: "A joyful soul is like healthy soil in which life can thrive and produce good fruit."

It is always good to renew our own joy just to be alive! I firmly believe that when we are joyous we can help others. There are so many depressed people in the world today! Some are clinically depressed, but many just need to concentrate on all the things in our daily life to be grateful for and that will help. We need to be positive when so much of the news is negative.

Thanks for just being alive today!