Bishop Porter on the Faithful Perspective of Thanksgiving
There’s a reason we call the second half of the Eucharist “The Great Thanksgiving.” We come to receive the sacraments from a position of thanks because we recognize that all of life is a gift. “All things come from Thee O Lord and of Thine own have we given Thee.” All things. The Great Thanksgiving isn’t merely a section of the liturgy; it’s a stance or a perspective we are invited to take in order to focus ourselves on God and not ourselves nor those we may wish to blame for the current condition. Joanna Macy, the co-author of Active Hope, writes, “Gratitude pulls us out of this rat race. It shifts our attention from what’s missing to what’s there.”