Dear Saint Philip’s community,

Today is an in-between day, sandwiched between the national holiday (secular) and the first Sunday of Advent (Christian).

Even though secular, it has profound spiritual and theological significance. Lincoln instituted the yearly observance in 1863, not long after the carnage at Gettysburg, as well as the second death of a child a year earlier. The Lincolns had buried two sons, one at age 4 and the other at age 11.

Imagine the heaviness of heart the president endured as he instituted Thanksgiving. Perhaps he had already been practicing thanksgiving as a way to persevere and remain resilient. Giving thanks does that. It strengthens and adds vitality. Give thanks in spite of it all.

To give thanks becomes a decision. A commitment. An intention. An orientation.

Eucharist is, after all, thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving instead of blame-giving, gripe-giving, or negativity-giving. An antidote indeed. An inoculation against cynicism. Blaming, complaining, and burrowing down in one’s bunker is all the rage. Is that bunker really all that inviting?

Resist. Stay out of that trap.

Insist. Put your foot down.

The benefits of gratitude are enormous.

However, the pull downwards can also be compelling. I once knew someone who would burrow down in her apartment from Thanksgiving until after New Year’s Day. Memories of raging alcoholic parents at “holiday time” haunted her. Hiding out was her way of coping when vivid memories of cruelty resurfaced. I do not know if she found a way out of “holiday hell.”

This can be a difficult time for many people. Lesser traumatic memories haunted my own father as ghosts of the past emerged for him at this time of year. Compassion is needed when dealing with old hurts. Compassion for oneself.

After all, another intention is to love oneself, thereby accepting and embracing this teaching of Christ: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Let the way of thanksgiving pervade your thoughts. Practice the habit of saying “Thanks.” Say it to yourself. Say it out loud.

Sing it. Yell it in your car (with the windows closed). In spite of anything and everything, there is always something for which to be deeply grateful.

Gratitude is grounding. Let it be your friend and guide in approaching and going through Advent. Find your way back to it when you lose sight. It can protect you from societal clamor and hype. It can ground you in Jesus the Christ.

Your fellow traveler,

—Richard