IN THEORY:

Times are tough. There’s bad news virtually every day with the economy faltering. Still, what are you grateful for, and what do you tell folks down on their luck how they can be thankful?

Every aspect of experience, all challenges, even the tragic, can open us to the primal mystery on which all else rests: Life is good! Thanksgiving dares to affirm this as blessing.

An attitude of gratefulness defines us at our best. Gratitude points us away from our self toward others, or toward an Other. The feeling of sublime indebtedness, defining what is expressly human about humanity, is larger than religion. On Thanksgiving, feast of the exuberant abundance of creation, all language about any conceivable Creator falls short because creation itself exceeds our capacity to account for it.

One need not know toward whom, exactly, we feel this most oceanic of emotions, thanksgiving; gratitude is good enough. Isn’t that why we call it “grace” — the gift that requires nothing of the recipient except a heart so full it overflows, becoming a well of grace for someone else?

And, grace abounds!

(The Very Rev’d Canon) Peter D. Haynes

Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

Isn’t it amazing how when it comes down to it, the things in life we are most grateful for are blessings like family and friends? It is so easy to fall into the trap of using this holiday to take stock of what we have and contrast it with what others do not have and then breathe a “whew — at least we’re not that bad off” sigh of relief and give thanks, only to wake up at 4 a.m. Friday to stimulate the economy.

However, if we think about it, our greatest blessings come in the lives we live, the relationships we make and the goodness we share.

There’s a lot that’s wrong with the world — injustice, poverty, war, famine, genocide — and yet if we sow love and build relationships based on gratitude and respect, we can go about changing the world one community at a time.

I give thanks for all the incredible people I know and love here in Orange County working toward justice and a better tomorrow.

The Rev. Sarah Halverson

Fairview Community Church

Costa Mesa

Gratitude, generosity, and grace

Are practical principles

All coming from the same place.

A working knowledge of Spirit

Traced upon the face of the human race:

A way of life free from strife;

The way of good understood;

The pleasure of the treasure hidden in the heart;

The knowledge that puts the horse before the cart.

God is with you now. No need to know how.

Seek to embody and embrace the practical

Practice of gratitude, generosity, and grace;

And you will take your place, no longer directed by sin,

For once forgiven you are free to begin,

A life rising out of the dark,

A life that finally hits the mark,

Filled with gratitude, generosity, and grace,

Practical principles that know your place;

A way of life free from strife,

The way of good understood.

Pastor Jim Turrell