Page 9 - praiseandthanks

think about it, how self-righteous we are, how full of self-pity.

We have played the martyr. Perhaps we have never stopped
mentioning it to others. Rather than becoming bitter, acidic

people, we are to enter into a healing praise. Jesus, if I am to

fail in something, or indeed in everything I do, it must be part of
your perfect plan for me, and others, then, still shall I praise

you! I love your plan for me Jesus, because I love you and I

trust you. I know you are in love with me. It is a great grace to
know that I so need you. Jesus Lord, I will pray all my prayers

in this same spirit of trust – for my sick friends, for conversions,

for the many intentions requested of me, for myself. Always I
will be looking at you in heartfelt praise and thanks. I will stop

looking at problems – they mesmerise me. I will cease looking
at problems and saying it is all useless. I will simply look at you,

Jesus, in unending loving and trusting praise and thanks. Isn’t

this what St. Paul has to say in 2 Cor 12: 9-10, “ it is then,
about my weakness that I am happiest of all to boast, so that

the power of Christ may rest upon me”.

Job, as well, in chapter 2, says, “the Lord gave, the Lord has

taken back – Blessed be the name of the Lord! If we take
happiness from God’s hand, must we not take sorrow too?”

On listening to the Word of God, and many times daily reciting

the psalms in my monastery, text after text confirms the value
of praise and thanks. In Psalm 41 and repeated in 42, we read,

“why are you cast down my soul, why grown within me? Hope

in God; I will praise Him still, my Saviour and my God.”

And in Col 3:14-15, it says “and to all these things, add love
which binds all things together in perfect unity. The peace that

Christ gives is to be the judge in your hearts, for to this peace

Christ has called you together in one body, and be thankful.”

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