Our school year ended, we are on break so the children and I made it to daily Mass this morning.  The first reading from Exodus reminded us of the importance of intercessory prayer.  

Moses dared to plead with God, to save the hard-hearted people from His wrath.  The people, who had chosen to worship a golden calf, deserved God’s punishment, but Moses stood before the Almighty and argued in their defense.  Imagine the picture of a man, Moses, having the nerve to stand before God and ask Him to hold back His mighty arm even though the people had once again betrayed their loving Father.  And what did our Father do?  He heard Moses’ intercessory prayer and He answered in the affirmative, He spared the people.  

My list of prayer needs is often long indeed as I try to recall everyone whom I’ve promised to lift up, but equally long could be my list of thanksgiving.  How often do we remember to ask, but do we just as often remember to thank our Good God?  


At the recent retreat I attended, we were given a notebook and challenged to list 1000 prayers of thanksgiving, what a brilliant endeavor.  So, rather than jot my thanks in a notebook that’s sure to end up collecting dust somewhere, I thought I’d make Thursdays my day of thanksgiving.  Hopefully, my list will inspire you to create your own or to just remember to stop and count your blessings for the day, week or month.

Dearest Heavenly Father, thank you for
1.  the opportunity to celebrate Mass this morning
2. the time of fellowship with friends
3. receiving You in the Eucharist
4. having a peaceful hour adoring you this evening
5. healthy kids
6. a loving husband
7. money to pay a bill
8. a working van
9. heat
10. the feeling of my 4yo’s head resting against me while he napped
11. the cast my friend was finally able to get put on her broken ankle
12. the money to pay the midwife
13. feeling the baby move inside of me
14. that I am able to move freely
15. that I feel able to pray
16. for (yummy) food on our table
17. that I was able to treat the kids to ice cream
18. for clean sheets
19. for my new contacts and the ability to see
20. for the ability to chat with my friend, who lives several states away, whenever I need to     

What are you thankful for?  Tell your Father, lavish Him with praise and thanksgiving because all good things come from His hand.  Thank Him also for the crosses which He uses to strengthen you and draw you closer to Himself.  Tell others and inspire a sense of awareness and gratitude.

St. Peter Julian Eymard teaches, “Let God bless the body with health or afflict it with sickness, let Him place it in this or that country, in the circumstances of shelter, of occupation, of food, or of society in which it pleases Him; it is all one to the soul.  One word makes everything acceptable, ‘God wants it; it is God’s good pleasure.”  Thank Him for everything!