This “Thanksgiving Day” begin with mass, thanking God for His daily blessings and favors. The Catholic Catechism explains:
“Thanksgiving characterizes the prayer of the Church which, in celebrating the Eucharist, reveals and becomes more fully what she is….The thanksgiving of the members of the Body participating in that of their Head.” (2637)
Yes, let this “Thanksgiving” change your entire life by making it a fresh new start as St. Faustina learned through her prayer of thanksgiving. Jesus loved her thanksgiving so much that the Sacred Host would not dissolve but would remain until right before the next mass as she explains in her diary twice,
“Today, I have come to understand many of God’s mysteries. I have come to know that Holy Communion remains in me until the next Holy Communion.” [1302]
“After Holy Communion, I felt the beating of the Heart of Jesus in my own heart. Although I have been aware, for a long time, that Holy Communion continues in me until the next Communion.” [1821]
She is not the first saint to experience this special grace of thanksgiving as St. Anthony Mary Claret also writes, “The Lord granted me the great grace of the sacramental species abiding in my breast. I now bear day and night within me the adorable Eucharist.”
One may ask how did this happen? St. Faustina understood very well what the catechism says about thanksgiving,
“Every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving… give thanks in ALL circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you…continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” (2638)
St. Faustina never stops thanking Jesus throughout the day, “I immersed myself in a prayer of thanksgiving, I heard these words in my soul:
‘My child you are My delight, you are the comfort of My Heart. I grant you as many graces as you can hold.’” [164]
Jesus also taught her to not only give thanks to Him for the good gifts, but she could even offer her unhappiness, sadness, deprivation, failures, and most especially her sins as He tells her,
“My daughter, you have not offered Me that which is really yours…Daughter, give Me your misery because it is your exclusive property.” [1318]
Her whole life became a “sacrifice of praise in thanksgiving.” (CCC 1359) She writes many times in her diary that she is “steeped” [675] in thanksgiving, and that she is “drowning” [258] in thanksgiving. In essence, her whole life in good times and in bad times in illness and health became one, “great act of thanksgiving.” [1369]
A perfect example of life full of thanksgiving is when St. Faustina writes, “Throughout the whole day, wherever I was and regardless of with whom I talked, a vivid presence of God accompanied me; my soul was drowned in thanksgiving for these great graces.” [1781] Her whole life interiorly and exteriorly was a song of thanksgiving as she writes ecstatically,
“Let every beat of my heart be a new hymn of thanksgiving to You, O God. Let every drop of my blood circulate for You. My soul is one hymn in adoration of Your mercy.” [1794]
Regrettably, not all souls receive Him in a deep prayer of thanksgiving as Jesus explains in sorrow,
“But not every soul receives Me with the same living faith as you do, My daughter, and therefore I cannot act in their souls as I do in yours.” [1407]
Finally, this “Thanksgiving” let’s be ready to speak to Jesus heart to heart and thank Him for the many blessings of this most difficult year that Jesus may say as He did to St. Faustina,
“Your words please Me, and your Thanksgiving opens up new treasures of graces.” [1489]
THE END
Video Last Supper Passion of the Christ:
