Good holy Sunday morning my dear friends of the Mission of Hope and Mercy, and listeners to the show. 

Happy Thanksgiving Colorado , Happy Thanksgiving America, Happy Thanksgiving from Lebanon, and Thanks be to God for allowing us the celebration of all that is good in creation. One of my favorite invocations as a prayer is to exclaim: Praised be the Most holy Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, now and forever Amen!

You know one of the most amazing special times I cherished and I came to know and adore since I moved to the US back in late 90s is the celebration of Thanksgiving tradition. It is a family tradition. It is filled with family warmth, beauty, culture, traditions, games, and best of all is the food at Thanksgiving. My little secret to share is that I like to keep eating the bread stuffing and turkey for a full week after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is also a feast during which we in America make plans to come home. We plan our Christmas decorations, our Christmas gifts and our Christmas gatherings. Many of us start experience the rush of late shopping and get some adrenaline going as we get stock inside airports, or eating for loved ones to come home…and at the end I pray all will make it on time for the family gathering. One of the most amazing things at Thanksgiving is that every family gets to celebrate it in a unique and different way. This is not to forget the night before Thanksgiving: it is such an important night where many utilize that evening to prep things up for the Day of Thanksgiving. Waking up early morning and kicking off the day with a brisk turkey trot whether for a fun run, or half a marathon of for charity purpose… to come back home and smelling the best aroma of grandma’s kitchen preparing all the goodies that go along with a slow roasted turkey. One of my favorite fun activities after a good meal is when I get to sit, pray, thank God for all the good things God has created and to sit after that and watch the best of all times American Traditional movies even black and white. Also watching the most famous tv series for the dozen times every year feels as new as always. We learn from Thanksgiving, we learn our American Identity of family that thanks, a family that shows gratitude, a family that gathers , prays, share meal and think of others.     

Looking at the unique meaning of Thanksgiving, I see how families sometimes use this time to teach our children appreciation and gratitude. This is very important value of Thanksgiving. Is to learn the best ways to teach our children how to show appreciation and gratitude.  

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” says St. Paul in (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

The Book Psalm includes at least 22 references to giving thanks! King David is a great example of one who gives Thanks to God even when he is suffering hardship and tribulations. It is indeed a great sign of great love and trust in God when King David in Psalm 23 exclaims: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters; 

3 he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
    for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
    I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff—
    they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    my whole life long.

This is why my friends gratitude is so important for us in life. And I am afraid that gratitude is a virtue and a a trait that we in the US we are loosing. We are losing not being grateful that we are born in the one of the best and strongest nations that humanity ever knew. And we seem to want to burn it to the ground with our bad attitudes of entitlement, hate, ignorance and selfishness. Of course not all of us, of course not most of us, bur enough number to distrust life and harmony of peace and accord in our society. The struggles in life usually happen from people who are selfish and entitled. Let us take great care of life, of God’s creation, of our families, let us be thankful for our freedom. Let us thank God for our faith. Let us thank God for the numerous and immense possibilities we are given in this country to grow and prosper, to procreate, to develop, to progress and advance in life, to live freely and still experience peace and some sort of economic stability. More so let us be thankful for the facts that we have the best schools if we chose to; we have the most advanced hospitals if we chose to; we have the best economic establishments if we know how to share and distribute little of what God has given us; we have the freedom to practice our faith, if we stop slipping into the slippery slope of indoctrination and the culture of death; we are thankful that virtue, faith, freedom and family are gifts from God that are still holding in our nation and we have to keep them holding up even stronger until a greater hope and a higher support cometh us from above and from better leaders with whom we can reach our spiritual destiny as “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”.