- This event has passed.
Vigils Reading
February 9
THANKFULNESS IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES
From a sermon by St John Henry Newman6
◊◊◊
It would be well if we were in the habit of looking at all we have as God’s
gift, undeservedly given, and day by day continued to us solely by his mercy. He
gave; He may take away. He gave us all we have, life, health, strength, reason,
enjoyment, the light of conscience; whatever we have good and holy within us;
whatever faith we have; whatever of a renewed will; whatever love towards him;
whatever power over ourselves; whatever prospect of heaven. He gave us
relatives, friends, education, training, knowledge, the Bible, the Church. All
comes from him. He gave; he may take away. Did he take away, we should be
called on to follow Job’s pattern, and be resigned: “The Lord gave, and the Lord
has taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.” While he continues his
blessings, we should follow David and Jacob, by living in constant praise and
thanksgiving, and in offering up to him of his own.
We are not our own, any more than what we possess is our own. We did
not make ourselves; we cannot be supreme over ourselves. We cannot be our
own masters. We are God’s property by creation, by redemption, by
regeneration. He has a triple claim upon us. Is it not our happiness thus to view
the matter? Is it any happiness, or any comfort, to consider that we are our
own? It may be thought so by the young and prosperous. These may think it a
great thing to have everything, as they suppose, their own way, — to depend on
no one, — to have to think of nothing out of sight, — to be without the
irksomeness of continual acknowledgment, continual prayer, continual
reference of what they do to the will of another. But as time goes on, they, as all
others, will find that independence was not made for man — that it is an
unnatural state — may do for a while, but will not carry us on safely to the end.
No, we are creatures; and, as being such, we have two duties, to be resigned and
to be thankful.
Let us then view God’s providences towards us more religiously than we
have hitherto done. Let us try to gain a truer view of what we are, and where we
are, in his kingdom. Let us humbly and reverently attempt to trace his guiding
hand in the years which we have hitherto lived. Let us thankfully commemorate
the many mercies he has vouchsafed to us in time past, the many sins he has
not remembered, the many dangers he has averted, the many prayers he has
answered, the many mistakes he has corrected, the many warnings, the many
lessons, the much light, the abounding comfort which he has from time to time
given. Let us dwell upon times and seasons, times of trouble, times of joy, times
of trial, times of refreshment.
How did he cherish us as children? How did he guide us in that dangerous
time when the mind began to think for itself, and the heart to open to the world!
How did he with his sweet discipline restrain our passions, mortify our hopes,
calm our fears, enliven our heaviness, sweeten our desolateness, and strengthen
our infirmities! How did he gently guide us towards the strait gate! How did he
allure us along his everlasting way, in spite of its strictness, in spite of its
loneliness, in spite of the dim twilight in which it lay! He has been all things to
us. He has been, as he was to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our God, our shield,
and great reward, promising and performing, day by day.
6 Parochial and Plain Sermons, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987, pp. 1003-1005.13