Monday Morning Meandering!

• 
• What a week. My husband and I are in the middle of soap opera. It seems to be a compilation of several based on their titles. I never watched the soaps. What started out as Days of Our Lives has morphed into General Hospital because of a fall by my elderly sister. (Yikes! Elderly? She's three and a half years younger than I am.) I took a pretty serious fall about a month ago myself, but suffered no ill effects except a little soreness. Unfortunately, my sister broke the ball in one of her hips, so she is scheduled for surgery. Prayers would be much appreciated for both her and her medical team.

Heading into Thanksgiving, What Are You Thankful For?

I'm in Book 2 Chapter 10 of the Imitation of Christ. The Chapter title is "On Gratitude for God's Grace." What is grace exactly? The word comes from the Latin gratia meaning "favor, esteem, regard; pleasing quality, good will, gratitude." 

In his Pocket Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon, S.J. defines grace in the Biblical sense as the "condescension or benevolence (Greek charis) shown by God toward the human race." 

God doesn't owe us a thing. He created us out of his total gratuitous love and wants to shower us with blessings. We don't deserve that love or those blessings, and we owe the One who created us unlimited thanks, honor, and praise for His goodness to us. We can never repay Him. We owe Him thanks for everything. Chesterton put it well when he said we shouldn't only say grace before meals, but grace before the opera and before we open a book or walk or swim.... The grace of God is in everything!