Father Faber’s Thanksgiving ~ Return to Fatima
Father Faber’s Thanksgiving
The following article is based on an essay by Father Faber primarily for his Confraternity of the Precious Blood in 1854.
THE NEGLECT OF THANKSGIVING
If we had to name any one thing which seems unaccountably to have fallen out of most men’s practical religion altogether, it would be the duty of thanksgiving.It is not easy to exaggerate the common neglect of this duty. There is little enough of prayer; but there is still less thanksgiving. For every million of Paters and Aves which rise up from the earth to avert evils or to ask graces, how many do you suppose follow after in thanksgiving for the evils averted or the graces given?
Alas! it is not hard to find the reason of this. Our own interests drive us obviously to prayer; but it is love alone which leads to thanksgiving. A man, who only wants to avoid hell, knows that he must pray; he has no such strong instinct impelling him to thanksgiving. It is the old story. Never did prayer come more from the heart than the piteous cry of those ten lepers who beheld Jesus entering into a town. Their desire to be heard made them courteous and considerate. They stood afar off, lest He should be angry if they with their foul disease came too near Him.
They did not truly know that dear Lord, nor how He had lowered Himself to be counted as a leper for the sons of men. They lifted up their voice saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When the miracle was wrought, the nine went on in selfish joy to show themselves to the priest; but one, only one, and he an outcast Samaritan, when he saw that he was made clean, went back, with a loud voice glorifying God, and he fell on his face before our Saviour’s feet, giving thanks. (Luke 17, 12-19)
Even the Sacred Heart of Jesus was distressed, and as it were astonished, and He said, ‘Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine? There is no one found to return and give glory to God but this stranger!” How many a time have we not caused the same sad surprise to the Sacred Heart!
What is our life on earth but a preparation for our real life in heaven? And yet praise and thanksgiving are the very occupations of our life in heaven …
Now, the Church on earth reflects the Church in heaven; the worship of the one is the echo of the worship of the other. If the life in heaven is one of praise and thanksgiving, so in its measure must be the life on earth.The very centre of all our worship is the Eucharist; that is, as the word imports, a Sacrifice of thanksgiving. Everything catches its tone from this. Everything in the Church radiates out from the Blessed Sacrament. The Spirit of the Eucharist must be found everywhere.
Prayer can teach us to depend on God, and answered prayer to trust in Him. But Infinite Goodness will not let us rest on such terms with Him. We are to be with Him to all eternity; He is to be our everlasting joy; to know Him and to love Him is life; and the love of Him is the joyful praise of Him forever. We thank God because we love Him, because His love of us touches us, surprises us, melts us, wins us.
Indeed, so much is thanksgiving a matter of love, that we shall thank Him most of all in heaven, when He has given us His crowning gift of the Beatific Vision, when He has given us all of Himself we can contain, and so there is nothing left for us to receive. Thanksgiving is, therefore, of the very essence of Catholic worship ; and as the practice of it increases our love, so does the neglect of it betoken how little love we have.
Nothing is so odious among men as ingratitude; yet it is the daily and hourly portion of Almighty God. There is no telling what He has done for men; there is no exhausting the mines of His abundant mercy, implied by each one of His titles, Creator, King, Redeemer, Father, Shepherd.
He loves to be thanked, because all He wants of us is love; and that He should please to want it is itself an infinite act of love. He had chosen to put His glory upon our gratitude; and yet we will not give it Him! What is worst of all, this affront does not come, like open sin, from those who are His enemies, and in whose conversion His compassion can gain such glory among men; but it comes from His own people, from those who frequent the Sacraments, and make a profession of piety, from those whom He is daily loading with the special and intimate gifts of His Holy Spirit.
Yet we go on refusing God His glory by our neglect of thanksgiving. We could glorify Him so cheaply: and yet it hardly comes into our thoughts. Can we then be said to love Him truly and really? What have we to do? How often shall I say it ? To love God and to get Him glory. God forbid we should so much as dream that we had anything else to do. Let us, then, go about the world seeking these neglected pearls of our heavenly Father’s glory, and offering them to Him. How is it that we have the heart to wish to do anything but this?
Oh, that we had more especial devotion to the Person of the Eternal Word, that we would read about Him the wonders the Church can tell us, and then meditate and make acts of love on what we read! This is the true way to increase our devotion to His most dear Humanity, and to learn how to watch at His crib, to weep over His cross, to worship at His tabernacle, and to nestle in His Sacred Heart. Ask St. Michael, St. John the Evangelist, and St. Athanasius, to get you this devotion; they have a speciality for it; and see how you will run the way of God, when its heat has made a furnace of your heart.
Remember also that He Himself has told us, through this revelation to His servant, that thanksgiving prepares the soul for His amazing liberalities. You see you must begin this day and hour quite a new and more royal sort of thanksgiving than those mere infrequent, formal, respectful civilities by which you have heretofore been content to acknowledge your accumulated obligations to our dearest Lord.
Saint Peter Faber excelled in this devotion also; and he used to say, that in every gift of God, three things were to be considered, the giver, the gift, and the affection with which it was given; and that, if we pondered these three points, we should see that there could be no such things as little mercies.
Living our Thanksgiving
There is one way especially which I would venture to suggest as a means of promoting the interests of Jesus, and that in a most loving manner and with little trouble to ourselves. It is by assuming to ourselves a little apostolate to spread the practice of thanksgiving. There are few of us who do not influence some others. Let us teach them, by our actions, to make more frequent, more fervent thanksgiving. Let us say a seasonable word for this practice whenever we can. If each of the members of the Confraternity of the Precious Blood persuaded five people, in honour of our dear Lord’s Five Wounds, to make daily thanksgiving, these five would in turn spread it to others, as the ripples spread on the surface of a pond; and how much would Jesus rejoice at this harvest of God’s glory from thousands of souls, making daily one act of thanksgiving more than they otherwise would have done, one Deo gratias, if it were nothing more. Think of all that is involved of grace and glory in one Deo gratias said with devout intention; and the Confraternity could send up to the blessed Majesty of God in each year millions of supernatural acts ! What an homage of love to Jesus would this easy apostolate of thanksgiving be!
Let us begin at once, this very day ; for time is flowing from under us, and we have kept God’s glory waiting long enough. This was written in 1854 and downloaded from archive.org.
NOTE: While we all know the importance of offering up our daily sufferings, it is also good to give thanks for them, for they come from the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He knows our weakness and does not expect heroics from us, but instead gives most of us small daily reminders, little humiliations to help us live the Litany of Humility – the penance of our little lives. And so we rejoice and give thanks that we are truly Mary’s children after all! Thanks be to God!
Remember – Our Lady needs us to obey: First Saturdays of Reparation, daily rosary, at least 5 mysteries, wear her brown scapular and live your Total Consecration to her Immaculate Heart, offering daily duties in reparation and for the conversion of poor sinners.
† Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of our hearts, Mother of the Church, do thou offer to the Eternal Father the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the conversion of poor sinners, especially our Pontiff.
† Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come! Viva Cristo Rey!
† St. Joseph, protect us, protect our families, protect our priests.
† St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
~ for love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, King.
Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O Sacred Virgin! Give me strength against thine enemies!
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