Thanksgiving Thoughts

When you gather with your family this Thanksgiving and experience the joy and the pain ... those who loved you and those who wounded you and still do, those who hurt you and those who healed you and still do, those who gave you hope and snuffed out your dreams and still do, those who picked you up and those who let you down and still do, those who kept promises and those who broke promises and still do, those who make you laugh and those who make you cry, those who comfort you and those who disturb you ... when you see those human faces ... joyous, angry, sad, bitter, broken, happy, hopeful, lost ... the young, the strong, the old, the weak ... remember that you will be all of these things one day ... and keeps these words of Mother Theresa in your heart:

"There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them."

Long periods of prayer in solitude occupied much of Mother Teresa's time before she went to visit her Home for the Dying in Calcutta.

Before you gather with friends and family, remember Mother Teresa's words: "Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart . . . " ... and give what you give with your heart, for we are all in the Home for the Dying.

Pause for a moment ... and then go forward in love.

From Mother Teresa:

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self- centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of having selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy ove
ight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do it anywyay.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It never was between you and them . . . anyway.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving.nn