What could be better for some pre-Thanksgiving dinner spiritual reading than to feast on some G.K. Chesterton quotes. “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” For instance: When I thank God for my ability to put on my socks one foot at a time, I make a happy start to my day. Why? Because I wonder how my brother, who spent most of his adult life in a wheelchair managed to do it at all while being such a happy guy. And I wonder about the God who created me and has thus far saved me from such a cross that my brother had to carry. “The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.” 

For instance: I do appreciate having a car. But there is no sense in having more cars, because I would have to divide my attention between the two and appreciate them less. But what about children? I often find moms with many children appreciate children more than those with only one or two. Appreciating children is not the same as spoiling one of them. “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” Do you take your coffee with or without sugar? Do you take your apple pie with or without ice cream? I do think this is why soldiers coming home from war find incredible joy just sitting at a table to eat whatever is put in front of them. 

I’ll add, if you don’t encourage for priestly vocations, you’re in danger of taking our Catholic Mass for granted. “You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.” 

And when we thank God for our turkey, do we not also need to thank God for the Jewel Store and all the employees, for the farmer, for the truck drivers, for the Oil Companies that make the fertilizers to help the turkeys eat the grain that makes them fat? Etc. Etc. Where does it all end? With God of course. And one of my favorites: “Do you know what day of the year is the hardest day for an atheist? It’s Thanksgiving. He finds himself with the great spirit of thanksgiving but finds he has no one to whom he should be ultimately thankful.”