Gratitude is Contagious

Dear Friends,

The first thing that came to mind for me on Day 5 of our 28 Days of Gratitude Calendar was pickleball, maybe because Fr. Logan and I went 3-1 last night in our league games. The category for day 5, if you haven’t looked at your calendar yet, is “a way you play” (If you don’t have a calendar, download a copy here, or pick one up on Sunday). I’m grateful for the health that allows me to play a game like pickleball, for friends do it with, and for a wife that makes sure the kids get their homework finished while I’m busy trying to smash a neon yellow ball at people.

Several of you have been sharing the objects of your gratitude each day on Facebook. I love this practice! Gratitude is a social contagion — and it’s a lot better to catch that most of the social contagions that are spreading in our culture right now. You may never know whose heart you touch by being a beacon of light and gratefulness in middle of their infinite timeline of social media doom.

If you haven’t been regular yet in using the 28 Days of Gratitude Calendar, you can certainly start on day 5. The only instructions are to reflect on the category, identifying something or someone in that category for which you are grateful, and then offering a prayer of gratitude to God for that person or thing.

The point of the Gratitude Calendar is to identify just some of the mighty blessings of God in our lives, and to live our lives in response to God’s great grace for us, in us, and through us. Thanks be to God!

In Christ,
Fr. Andrew