Seminaries were not immune to the turmoil in society and the Church during the 1970s. Seminarians, increasingly beginning formation at older ages, brought radical ideas from universities and workplaces. Some wanted to change the world from the top down. They became impatient with a Church that seemed to pander to members whose practice of faith seemed limited to Sunday Mass. Seminaries themselves seemed outmoded, patriarchal institutions.

This was my perspective during my own initial formation, first in novitiate (1974-75) and then at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington (1975-80). I had been a Peace Corps volunteer where I had learned self-reliance. After that, much of the oversight in the novitiate felt paternalistic. The curriculum at the House of Studies also appeared restrictive and lifeless. I spurned it and, often, the good men responsible for implementing it by taking half my courses at other institutions through a consortium arrangement. I would echo the criticisms of priests and other students calling for radical reform. Liturgy seemed more like an institutional hurdle than a source of life. With all these misgivings, I was, of course, unsettled about whether I should stay or leave.

During this unrest, I came across a pamphlet by Father Henri Nouwen. “From Resentment to Gratitude” was patently addressed to my perplexed state. Father Nouwen wrote of his experience in giving a retreat to diocesan seminarians ready to be ordained priests. He said that where he had expected to find hope and enthusiasm, he encountered resentment. Nouwen described this attitude as “the passion that makes you feel angry and frustrated with the people and institutions on which you made yourself totally dependent without being able to do anything about it.” As if he had me in mind, Nouwen wrote that seminarians who were infected with resentment “keep clinging to (their) complaints as (their) only morbid way of self-affirmation” while “leaving no room for God to enter and to set (them) free.”

Nouwen went on to prescribe an antidote to this particularly dismal condition. He said that education for the priesthood should teach that a priest’s “life is not an inalienable property to be defended but a gift to be shared.” He emphasized, “All we (priests) have, has been given to us. …. The only thing we can give is thanks.” Of course, Nouwen included a reference to the etymology of the Eucharist as “thanksgiving.” He commented, “There (in the Eucharist) we open our hands and hearts to the Giver of all gifts and are reminded that life is not to be owned or possessed but to be shared and finally given away.”

“From Resentment to Gratitude,” which cost me less than a dollar, was instrumental in changing my outlook and saving my vocation. After reading it, I knew that I needed to alter the ways I perceived the world around me. I began to appreciate the experience of formation and to regret always trying to have my own way. In time, I would come to understand Church leadership as help, not as a roadblock, in my desire to address human ills. I would also no longer feel the burden of tilting at windmills every time I preached.

From Gratitude to Thanks

Giving thanks proceeds from gratitude. We say we feel grateful, but gratitude is more than a feeling that waxes and wanes. It is a virtue to be exercised and developed. To become a grateful person, to live by the virtue of gratitude, we must thank God in times of trial and setback, as well as when we are helped or have attained success.

Pope Francis has counseled on this: “The prayer of praise is helpful to us. … Paradoxically it must be practiced not only when life fills us with happiness, but above all in difficult moments, in moments of darkness when the path becomes an uphill climb” (General Audience, Jan. 13, 2021).

Gratitude is a preeminent social virtue when practiced with other people. Because it does not fully repay a benefactor, gratitude is said to be less than justice. Father Patrick Kelly, OP, author of the New Catholic Encyclopedia article “Gratitude,” calls it “an attitude, not a quid pro quo.” The attitude blossoms into a gesture, a word or a token of appreciation which, Kelly says, no one is too poor to make.

Because practicing gratitude basically involves words and gestures, it can become a significant part of anyone’s identity. It costs nothing to say “thank you” or to shake another’s hand for a good turn done to us. Doing so unfailingly, we make gratitude part of who we are. Even when we do not feel especially grateful for the way someone has treated us, an expression of gratitude is not necessarily hypocrisy or self-betrayal. It can be our effort to maintain the faith that God is forming us in virtue with both failure and success. The only thing for which we should not feel grateful is our sin.

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The Collect for Thanksgiving Day

 Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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This may sound romantic, but it is true if we reflect deeply on trying situations. According to scholar Gary Saul Morson, Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn learned the famous truth “the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart” in a Soviet Gulag. While Solzhenitsyn was being repressed, he was forced to make a decision. He could either choose to do what was right by his conscience or he could calculate and do what would most likely keep him alive. The Nobel laureate chose to follow his conscience. He came to understand the weaknesses of others and to realize that he too had been guilty of injustices. He could then seek redemption and transformation. In the end, Solzhenitsyn expressed gratitude for the horrendous Gulag experience, “I say without hesitation: ‘Bless you, prison, for having been in my life.’”

Some may think that Nouwen exaggerates when he says that all we have and are is given to us. Nevertheless, he is quite right in insisting that we do well in making gratitude a primary response to life. As Deuteronomy teaches, we did not build the cities we live in nor dig the wells from which we drink (cf. 6:11). Moral theologian Richard Gula calls gratitude his “fundamental stance” — that is, the “consciousness” that shapes his “perspective.” Recognizing that he is and has much more than what his own efforts have produced, Gula gives thanks to God. He recognizes that the Lord has provided the resources for his success where sin or incapacity would have caused him to fall short.

Although free will makes gratitude an option for us to accept or reject, Scripture requires it. In an homage to a venerated Anglican priest, Scripture scholar Hans Boersma cited a mandate in the Book of Deuteronomy, which from the NABRE reads: “‘I have brought the first fruits of the products of the soil which you, LORD, have given me.’ You shall set them before the LORD, your God, and you shall bow down before the LORD, your God. Then you and your household … shall celebrate merry over all these good things which the Lord, your God, has given you’” (Dt 26:10-11). St. Paul certainly took this obligation to heart in his letters which are replete with expressions of gratitude. For example, he exhorts the Thessalonians (and all Christians), “In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thes 5:18).

A Priest’s Thankfulness

As much as priests, like Paul, want to thank God for the good people he has sent our way to bless, there are other things basic to the calling for which we give thanks. Once in a meeting, a prominent businessman told me that I was very fortunate. I could not disagree with him but was curious to know why he thought so.. He told me that it was worth a fortune to be studying the Word of God as one’s regular work. Indeed, priests should give thanks to God continuously for not just the privilege but also the obligation to reflect on Scripture.

As much as it is true that we are thankful for the Word of God to study and teach, we are more thankful for the full expression of the word in Jesus Christ. He comes as body and blood, word and Spirit in the Eucharist. In this humble way, Christ offers himself to us daily as a gift. Realizing this truth, we do well to intentionally thank him after every Mass.

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Praise, the Gift of God

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God. For, although you have no need of our praise, yet our thanksgiving is itself your gift, since our praises add nothing to your greatness but profit us for salvation through Christ our Lord.

— Common Preface IV

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With many things on our minds, we may not remember to give thanks for the multiple ways God gifts us every day. To make up for this fault, the respected religious educator Father Mark Link, SJ, once recommended in a day of recollection for priests that they include a prayer of thanksgiving in their nightly examination of conscience. He said that first we should pray “thanks” to God the Father and specify a blessing received from the Lord that day. Then, he continued, we pray, “I’m sorry” to God the Son and name a sin or fault which caused us regret. Finally, Link concluded, we pray, “Please …” to God, the Holy Spirit, for help with a challenge that faces us tomorrow. Of course, this simple exercise will be profitably practiced by laypersons as well.

The late political columnist, White House press secretary and Catholic convert Tony Snow, squarely hit the nail on the head when he wrote that the Fourth of July is not the primordial American holiday — Thanksgiving is. However, as much as the blessings of freedom and opportunity are mentioned by religious people and politicians at this time of year, Americans seem reluctant to express personal gratitude publicly. I once had a contrasting experience at a Thanksgiving supper hosted by an immigrant Mexican family. After we ate, the hostess called the guests together in a circle and asked each to tell why she or he was thankful to God. For me, this remains a unique experience after sharing many Thanksgiving Day meals.

Although priests should give thanks to God continuously, we often have difficulty doing so. Some of us may carry resentment in our hearts, perhaps for being overlooked for a particular ministry or not being permitted to express our affection in marriage. Yet we, as much as anyone and more than most, have reason to give God thanks. Gratitude becomes for a priest as much as agility is to a tennis player or wit is to a public speaker. We are more God’s representative when we go out of our way to say “thank you” to all who help us and when we thank God every time we pray. St. John Paul II expressed the reason for our gratitude: “We know that we are ‘unworthy servants’ (Lk 17:10), but we are grateful to the Lord for having wished to make us his ministers.”

FATHER CARMEN MELE is a Dominican priest ministering in Puerto Rico. He writes two homily blogs, at cbmdominicanpreacher.blogspot.com (weekday and Sunday homilies) and padrecarmelo.blogspot.com (Sunday homily in Spanish).