His Grace shares with us words from St. Isaac the Syrian,St. Basil the Great, and St. Mark the Ascetic about giving thanks.
St. Isaac the Syrian the great ascetic of the 7th century begins his 2nd ascetical homily saying, “The thanksgiving of the recipient incites the giver to give gifts greater than the first…Nor does any gift remain without addition, except that which is received without thanksgiving. The fool’s portion is small in his eyes.”
St. Isaac teaches us a simple and beautiful principle of the spiritual life: If I want the graces and gifts that I currently enjoy in my life to increase then I need to realize and give thanks to God and others for those that have already been given. Giving thanks is what assures them that we value what they have graciously given us. As St. Isaac says, we would be foolish to ignore God’s generosity and think that our portion of gifts from God is small and simply consider prayer a matter of requesting more without appreciation and gratitude. Without times of thanksgiving and selfless praise.
St. Basil the Great clearly instructs us, “Do not start your prayer by a request, lest it is thought that if it was not for the request, you would not have prayed.”
For this reason we begin all our prayers in the Church with Thanksgiving saying, “we thank You for everything, concerning everything, and in everything. For You have covered us, helped us, guarded us, accepted us to Yourself, spared us, supported us, and have brought us to this hour.”
We repeat this prayer in Church in the Liturgy, before raising incense, at baptisms, at weddings, at funerals, but also in our homes constantly when we pray the Agpeya as a family or on our own.
The Psalmist says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, / And forget not all His benefits” (Ps 103:2).
But sadly, how many of us take a moment to not just say the Thanksgiving Prayer, but stop and actually give thanks—to remember—to not forget—all God’s blessings? Not just for the new and unique things in our life, but also for the things we may most take for granted.
Several weeks ago there was a story told of a 93 year old man in Italy that recovered from coronavirus in the hospital, and he was told to pay for the ventilator for one day, and the old man cried. The doctor advised him not to cry over the bill.
But the old man said “I am not crying because of the money I have to pay. I can pay all the money." I cry because I have been breathing God's air for 93 years, but I never pay for it. It takes 5,000 Euros to use a ventilator in a hospital for one day. Do you know how much I owe God?! I didn't thank God for that before."
Like this man, we also likely have many things we take for granted: the food we eat, the clean water we drink and wash with, our physical and mental health, the Church, our families and all the people and circumstances and second chances in our life which God used and continues to use to build our relationship with Him.
St. Mark the Ascetic of the 5th century instructs that the remembrance of God’s blessings is the answer to the question we often ask and are asked: “How do I begin living a life according to God?”
Whether we are struggling with weaknesses of loneliness or loss of purpose or despair, or sins of envy & judging others or pride; or if we want to grow in the virtues: to truly rejoice, to pray, to acquire humility—thanksgiving is a necessary weapon at the beginning and all throughout our life with God and others helping us to both overcome sins and habits as well as grow in the virtues.
Therefore, as an exercise this week, let us sit quietly with God remembering and writing our past and present experiences and aspects of our life for which we have seldom or maybe never offered thanks to God and neighbor.
Let us stand before God for at least 2 minutes daily. 120 seconds. With no requests, no complaints, but rather let us thank Him: “for everything, concerning everything, and in everything.”
