“Gratitude – A Noble Fruit of Trust” — Sr. Donata Farbaniec, OLM | November 22, 2017

the title of our sharing is gratitude a noble fruit of trust today and tomorrow and I think even today many families already gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving and it's a beautiful well-known American holiday we don't have it of course in Poland but personally I like it very much and I always wanted to get to its essence to see to find out the deepest significance of this holiday and I have to say it's overflowing it's in its meaning it is abundant and I know there is no need for me to to explain to you the history you know it very well its origin but tonight we will try to learn more what is the gratitude what Thanksgiving means in in its essence to get to its heart as much as we can of course and tonight we are in front of the Lord in the Eucharist to give him thanks for his blessings His grace his presence for all the graces he and those on us unceasingly every day we know that the Eucharist this word means Thanksgiving to give thanks so when we come in front of the Lord here when we come today to participate in the Eucharist first we need to before we start asking for graces it's good to think what I want to thank him for what I want to thank him for so it's very important to have to learn the attitude of gratitude and I don't say like if I feel I want to give thanks to the Lord if I am in good mood to thank him for something I said the attitude to learn the attitude of gratitude attitude is something stable is my will it's my decision it's my awareness of the graces that God bestows on me some a hundred ohm 5 says recall the wondrous deeds the Lord has done recall the wondrous deeds the Lord has done let us recall we need to remember them we need to recall them the graces to remember that we are enormous ly gifted people and we cannot get sick with dementia and sometimes if we if we don't have good memory then it's what Caesar gaudiya set in the announcements it's very important to write down the graces we we received even to have like like a book note you know like something or sheet of paper of a notebook that where I can write down the graces God gives me because we know why why to write and write them down to remember them to recall them to have something I can go back and remind myself okay God was so much present in my life that time it's normal that we have our ups and downs we have our time of desolation and consolation and sometimes it's very hard to give thanks to the Lord sometimes we have to think do I have something I want to give thanks I'm really grateful to God it's so now I'm going through such hard tough time I don't feel even like a spark of gratitude is in my heart I remember once it was a few years ago my English teacher it was in Poland shared with me about her examination of conscience and I really I found it beautiful she said she's a very knowledgeable but also wise and creative person and once yeah she sure that in every evening she's trying to recall and to thank God for all these situations that she overlooked that she didn't during the day that she didn't recognize the presence of God because certain things we can see very easily Jesus thank you for this thank you for that but she said she takes a few moments every evening to go through the day and to see where God was hidden what gifts she she has received during the day and she didn't notice them she didn't recognize them she didn't recognize God's presence in these gifts so it's it's very important and so one thing is to to make a decision to strive for an attitude of gratitude not for a feeling and emotion of gratitude because as we said it's not important it's not possible to be in good mood to have good positive emotions all the time but to to be grateful it's my decision it's my will I want to be aware I want to see God's presence in my life and the next step is about my relationship with God my relationship with God as my father this is a very crucial meditation because everything depends on it who is God for me this is the question who is God for me if we haven't answered this question so far talking there is no point talking about gratitude in our lives who is God for me from everything depends on our answer to this question is he my father who loves me who cares for me who guides me or not do I meet with him do I talk to him do I want to spend time with him how what do I feel when I am before him how do I feel what's in my heart not not so much what's on my lips but what's in my heart is he my father loving father always present to me or it's maybe better to be cautious about him to stay and to meet him like in a distance is he a person or an idea if God is my father there is no need to encourage ourselves to be grateful if God is my father no need to encourage ourselves to be grateful but I would even say if our image of God is incorrect is broken is untrue and very often it's like this gratitude can heal it the attitude of gratitude can heal it is it easy I don't know but we are working this is like the surgery on an open heart what's there and first let's start with simple thing you know the our lesson of how to learn gratitude simple thing not even what I received but who I am that's the first question Who I am the quash it's not a question Who am I it's not this question but the statement who I truly am Sister Faustina was also looking for the answer to this question she wrote I penetrated the whole world and I found no other love like the love of my heart therefore I looked into the world of eternity my heart has desired the love of the immortal one my heart has sensed that I am a royal child I see that the heavenly Palace is my home do we see what do we sense what what she's talking about let's try like a very simple exercise in the morning right after we wake up to imagine I am a royal triad and it's not a wishful thinking it's true I am a royal triad preparing this meditation I recalled one of the harmonies given in my parish church in my hometown by our pastor and he gave us an example of a queen and handmaid and it happened that the queen slapped her you know the hand made on the hand made on her face and the girl asked why did you do it you are money you are my handmaid but I am a child of God I am a child of God be aware Who I am who we are we have unimaginable dignity the dignity of being children of God the dignity that no human being is able to confirm a person a human being can tell us about this dignity but I would say it will be only like an intellectual knowledge we need to hear it in the depth of our hearts about the dignity we have a student of God and at the same time no human being or even a devil is able to damage it this dignity in us nothing only the one only the one who is dwelling in me can reveal this truth to me can confirm my value and my dignity only the one God who is dwelling in me can reveal it to me this truth nothing from outside can do it no social status no degrees money troubles beautiful appearance nothing we need to get to this wellspring gushing forth in the depths of our hearts we need to get to the love with capital L to the love the presence of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit present in our hearts we need to get to the place where we are totally unconditionally loved and from this place we have to look at ourselves and then consider other people in the world so it seems that the most important pilgrimage pilgrimage of our lives is not somewhere outside going somewhere outside the most important pilgrimage of our lives is to the inside it's directed to - inside the greatest gift we have ever been given is here we are the holy temples the shrines were guarded Wells so this is the first reason why we should ever grateful for who we are everything else flows from this truth the love dwells in me the Blessed Trinity made me they are dwelling place and I am the trial of the triune God for whom he cares and leads me to my final destination everlasting communion with him in heaven he has the plan he knows what way we should go how to guide me and from this perspective I should perceive my everyday life he knows the way he knows our destination he knows how and what way to guide me my loving father is in charge he is in control he is the captain of the store but sometimes what what do we do we think we are in charge we need to instruct him this what's in our we need to do every and any possible thing to carry out our own plan because we think this is the only one plan that is going to work so maybe that's why we have so many detours in our lives when we look at our lives from this perspective with then we see that everything is a gift given by the loving hand of our Father everything so there will be graces we really and truly enjoy and there will be tough graces difficult challenging so once it came to me that sometimes when when I think I know better then I'm acting like a three-year-old try trying to instruct my teacher about the educational system trying to instruct my teacher or my parents how they should bring me up it's funny isn't it like three are all tried would like to be in charge and like to instruct you know his teacher but at the same time it's consoling because we need to be like children and when we look at them you know like little children given by Jesus as examples they don't think they are in charge they don't behave in this way they don't track their parents check what they do how they guide them they are attitude is self surrender complete self surrender because they feel they are loved maybe they control when they don't feel they are loved but they when they feel they are safe everything is fine just guide me Jesus said to st. Faustina do not examine with curiosity they wrote down which I'll eat you never trust in yourself but abandon yourself totally to my world and she replied I want to live in the spirit of faith I accept everything that comes my way has given me by the loving will of God who sincerely desires my happiness and so I will accept with submission and gratitude everything that God sends me I will pay no attention to the voice of nature and to the promptings of self love so when we look at reality from this perspective then everything looks differently our God is God of love and love it in its nature needs to be manifested God who is love manifests himself every day how are we able to see it don't wait great things to happen just for example sunrise or it might be too early or at sunset or the colors of the fall all people around me simple things a priest during our retreat shirt with us a beautiful testimony about a person's sensitivity to God's presence he was invited to visit a sick person he said when I saw this person I couldn't figure out if it was a man or a woman because the face was so terribly disfigured it was a woman and she shared with him because he was confined because she was confined to bed her family during the spring and summertime took her to the altar and put her bed under the tree and she said father when I look at this tree I see that there are not even two leaves that look alike every leaf is different this priest said when I heard it I asked myself a question who is the healthy one here Sister Faustina wrote you have surrounded me you have surrounded my life with your tender and loving care more than I can comprehend for I will understand your goodness in its entirety only when the veil is lifted I desire that my whole life be but one out of Thanksgiving to you Oh God sensitivity to God's gifts one thing is to see them to see the actual gift the other more important is to see the giver who is behind the gift I received we know that sometimes certain things are very valuable they have great value to us and because they have value themselves but because of the person who gave them because this person is very dear to us so the gifts the physical things are very important to us because of the giver so when God is my loving father who cares for me and I am his beloved child daughter son then I'm looking at my life from my interior home where he dwells and where I am with him yes where I am with him I would say when I when we find this interior home where we can stay with him then we are able to except even the most difficult graces when we find him in us the more even the most difficult graces we can accept not only accept but to see the loving hand of the father who is giving them to us gratitude is the fruit of faith hope trust and love and it's a very noble virtue not self-centered but perceiving the reality from God's perspective not with resignation when difficult graces come but with self surrender and trust that this is the stage of my life that we have to go through we means my father and I I never alone when we visit our Lord even every so often in his home within us we come to believe that everything that happens in our lives is good and even in life challenges us God can turn all the challenges and everything even what we've done wrong bad things into good his loves have has such power to turn even bad things into good everything is his will or he allows certain things to happen we are immersed in his love so that's why we need to pray constantly that God would cleanse our hearts and restore the sight to our eyes so that we could see the truth of our reality I would like to encourage you to practice a very beautiful prayer of praise and thanksgiving praise and thanksgiving before we start asking for something we don't have to be in good mood we don't have to feel but now I want to praise you lord someone said even through tears and with wooden lips to praise the Lord as the act of love and act of trust I want to share with you because I was very I when I read about it that we should we should praise the Lord doesn't matter in every situation doesn't matter what we are going through so Jesus put me into a test I didn't know about it I had a meeting and very important appointment it was in Poland in another city and it was like three hour away from by bus I had to transfer the bus twice on the way first to get to the main station and then to that city and then take the tram so that was a dream it was in winter I left home very you know early early enough to have enough time to be on time and the whole plan failed on the first bus stop the bus didn't come so you can imagine my blood pressure was going up I was very upset with all the drivers in that city because really I wanted to be - come on - yeah - come on time and I made you know great effort - to make it but it failed the first bus stop so my mood really was terrible it's better not to describe it but in the midst of it I hurt in my heart the words praise me I knew definitely it wasn't from me I knew it was from him I didn't expect it at that time you know exactly on this bus stop in winter after almost 40 minutes of waiting for the bus so I recognized it was him and I said Lord in such a mood I can't I can't do that I know I'm not in in a good mood to praise him but I started you know with wooden lips I started to praise him very simple very simple without any positive emotions I said I trust you Jesus I know you are here and you are in this situation you are in control you are in charge I surrender to you all this situation Eamon the bus came but it was already too late to get the other bus the second one so when I came to the main station in that city I saw you know the bus was gone and out of the sudden I heard an announcement there is another bus I didn't know about it ahead of time going to that city in five minutes I said wow it seems like a rescue but the next question was I needed to get off in the middle in the center of the city but certain buses they were going taking you know like a Beltway today you know like to avoid the city center and to get to the station so I thought about it that's why I went to the driver and I asked the question are you going through the city center no okay so it's not going to help me I turned back and after a few seconds I could hear him crying out sister but for you I will go you know I was really really shocked never before and never after something like that happened to me I knew Jesus was at work he was there he really you know he showed me how the prayer of praise and thanksgiving how he is working when we really truly surrender everything ourselves to him we can conclude this reflection that our trust in the Lord is most fully expressed in accepting the will of God with praise and thanksgiving many Saints give us outstanding examples of their relationship with God when they embraced with gratefulness the way God guided them even when it was filled with challenges and suffering they were always short of his love and our two great apostles of divine mercy Saint Faustina and Saint John Paul the second she wrote welcome to you new year in the course of which my perfection will be accomplished thank you in advance o Lord for everything your goodness will send me thank you for the cup of suffering from which I shall daily drink do not diminish its bitterness Oh Lord but strengthen my lips that while drinking of this bitterness they may know how to smile for love of you my master I thank you for your countless comforts and graces that flow down upon me each day like the morning dew silently imperceptibly which no curious eye may notice and which are known only to you and me O Lord for all these I thank you as of today because at the moment when you hand me the cup my heart may not be capable of giving things so it's very important to to recall and even to write down the graces we will receive to remember them and the testimony of John Paul the second recorded a video testimony which he gave in May 1994 he said through Mary I would like to express my gratitude for this gift of suffering I would like to give thanks for this gift I understand that it is a necessary gift that the Pope had to be in the Jamali Hospital he had to be absent from this window for four weeks he had to suffer in the same way he suffered thirteen years ago he had to suffer again this year I have meditated I have reflected over all of these during my hospital stay and I have understood that I should lead the Church of Christ to the third millennium with prayers with various initiatives but I have seen that this is not enough I need to lead it with suffering these two examples show us that when we accept whatever God gives us as coming from our loving father we start to look at everything no longer from a human perspective but from the gods perspective we will see that on the way of our lives he transforms us and makes us more and more at his image and his likeness and I would like to to finish this reflection with the words of father Felix for AF ski a late apostle of divine mercy a polluting father who suffered a lot and who said Jesus I trust in you mean I thank you Lord for everything you give me

Channel: Saint John Paul II National Shrine

Views: 37,055

Keywords: Evenings with the Merciful Jesus, Sr. Donata Farbaniec, Saint John Paul II, pope, museum, shrine, catholic, national shrine, john paul ii, immaculate conception, washington dc, divine mercy, divine mercy chaplet, jp2, jp2shrine, kofc, live mass, daily mass, online mass, bible museum, rosary, online rosary, I will never forget you, St. John Paul II National Shrine, @jp2shrine, sr donata Farbaniec

Id: -xlFeVz-q4c

Length: 38min 49sec (2329 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 27 2017