Theme
Witnesses on gratitude
Giving thanks is not denying what is hard: these witnesses held both at once.
A few words
Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.
Time in its irresistible and ceaseless flow carries along on its flood all created things, and drowns them in the depths of obscurity.
For all that has been, thanks. For all that shall be, yes.
When I survey the wondrous cross, my richest gain I count but loss.
O thou, my soul, forget no more the friend who all thy misery bore.
I was like a stone lying in the deep mire; and he who is mighty came and, in his mercy, lifted me up.
All 39 witnesses on gratitude
- Abraham Joshua Heschel Wonder as the root of prayer, and prayer that walks out into the street.
- Absalom Jones The thanksgiving of a people who remember their deliverance, and pray for those still waiting for theirs.
- Adelaide Anne Procter Thanksgiving that remembers to give thanks for the shadow too.
- Alberto Hurtado Asking what Christ would do, here, now, and doing it.
- Anna Hinderer Holding a modest post for a very long time, and still finding reason there to give thanks.
- Anne Bradstreet The faith that passes through doubt and loss, and gives thanks from the ordinary of a woman's life.
- Anne Comnène Holding the memory of those we have loved, when time would carry everything away.
- Antonietta Meo The trust of a child who speaks to God as to a friend, and offers even pain without drama.
- Bède le Vénérable Long, obscure work carried through to the last day, and study that turns into prayer.
- Cædmon de Whitby A gift received late and unearned, and given straight back as praise.
- Charles Wesley Doctrine set to song so that busy hands can pray it.
- Christina Rossetti When there is nothing else, giving one's heart (poverty made into an offering).
- Dag Hammarskjöld The prayer of yes: to consent to God in secret, in the midst of tasks and tensions.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning The certainty that nothing is small, and that God sometimes answers too fast.
- Emmélie de Césarée Offering God what one holds dearest, by naming it to him.
- Fanny Crosby Gratitude that turns deprivation into song: what is missing becomes the very space of praise.
- Frances Ridley Havergal The whole and joyful consecration of self, offered limb by limb and day by day.
- François d’Assise Poverty as radical freedom, creation as family.
- Isaac Watts Turning frailty into song, patient creativity under long confinement, a gift for putting complex faith into words ordinary people could sing.
- Jacques de Saroug Prayer that becomes song, and the humble request to be a simple instrument in the breath of God.
- Jean Chrysostome The word that defends the poor, and thanksgiving held even in the loss of all.
- Jean l'Aumônier Seeing in the one who lacks everything someone who has credit with God.
- Jean-Sébastien Bach Daily work offered as praise: turning one's craft, done well, into glory given to God.
- Julia Greeley Giving at night to spare the shame of the one who receives; a charity that refuses to be seen.
- Krishna Pal Conversion paid for at the cost of family and community, the courage to be first when no one else would follow, hymns written in a mother tongue to carry a faith still foreign to everyone around him.
- Lancelot Andrewes Prayer patiently shaped in secret, made of praise, confession, and remembrance.
- Madeleine Delbrêl “You prepare a table before me… and my cup overflows.” Madeleine Delbrêl sought that overflow not in the desert, but in the middle of the city, among neighbors and ordinary tasks. Gratitude, for her, is recognizing that the table is already set, that everyday life itself is the place of grace.
- Narayan Vaman Tilak To recognize the beloved face at the end of a long search, and to hand everything over to him.
- Ntsikana Finding in one's own language the words to name God, without waiting to be given them.
- Olaudah Equiano Freedom wrested from injustice, and Providence discerned in the smallest ordeal.
- Patrick d'Irlande Prayer learned in captivity, and the forgiveness that goes back toward those who wounded.
- Phillis Wheatley Praise wrested from the night: singing mercy without silencing injustice.
- Philon d'Alexandrie Praying at set hours, and letting the whole day order itself around them.
- Rose de Lima The certainty that trial is not a dead end but a passage, and that grace comes after.
- Solanus Casey The trust that gives thanks in advance, and the patient welcome of one who listens at the door.
- Son Yang-won Forgiveness carried as far as adoption, and thanksgiving wrested from the barest grief.
- Thomas Ken A day bounded by two prayers, and the polite refusal that costs a man his office.
- Thomas Traherne Wonder recovered after childhood, as a form of thanksgiving.
- Yared l'Éthiopien Raising praise through song, praying with the voice of a people.