Saturday, March 2, 2013

Dear God,

The sweet harmonic sound of women singing in the chapel sounded like angels.  Nearly all of us retreatants had decided to participate in morning prayer with the monastic community.  Truly it was the beginning of a profound day of your spirit's breeze blowing upon us.

We had gathered around the theme:  Gratitude:  An Exceptional Way of Living.  We had talked about the benefits of gratitude, the effects of being grateful.  After morning prayer we moved into a discussion of ingratitude.  We had listed characteristics of an ungrateful person.  An artist among us had drawn a picture.  We had laughed and realized we saw traits in ourselves.  Yes, we too were ungrateful people.  But just the night before we had carved space in our own souls, space in which gratitude could dwell.

In the afternoon we moved to building an attitude of gratitude.  We created gratitude journals in anticipation of recording gratitude moments.  We held hands and prayed for one another.

But it was in the evening when your spirit filled our conference room.  We watched a movie clip that displayed the meaningful value of gratitude and the ways in which human lives are deeply inspired when touched by gratitude.  Then a woman among us, a courageous woman who had outlived her tormentors, physical and emotional, spoke sharing a powerful testimony of love conquering evil.  In the end she had said thank you to you, Living God, because she discovered the power of gratitude to overcome.  By night's end we sat on the floor around an altar of hearts and burning candles as we each shared our own story of gratitude.  As we sang in rich harmony in rounds of Father, I Adore You, we all knew your living spirit breeze had touched each one of us.

Breathe on us,
Living God;
breathe on us.
Enliven us
with faith
so our hearts
will wildly pound
with loving gratitude.
We are grateful,
oh, so
very grateful.

Love, Andrea