Alleluia!
Praise the Lord, all nations,
extol him, all peoples,
for his faithful love is strong.
and his constancy never-ending.
That's all there is to Psalm 117 - just two verses. "If you've got gratitude, you've got the whole of the spiritual life." We complicate it of course, but really all we need to do is to strive after an ever-deepening gratitude.
I've heard there are Orthodox Jews who practice One hundred blessings a day. We know the little formula at Mass (borrowed from Judaism): "Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, through your goodness..."
And we can take that invitation to conscious gratitude with us all day, beyond the bread and the wine:
Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, through your goodness there is:
my first conscious breaths of the day,
that my heart beat through the night,
these morning meds,
this glass of water,
my shower and my teeth (real or false)
my morning coffee,
that I was taught how to read,
this Gospel page,
this Gospel page,
this technology by which I communicate,
the smell of just cut grass coming through the window,
and the morning fog,
the person who crafted my eye glasses,
the sound of summer insects,
and the music of birds,
that I will see friends today...
There's 15 right there. We get the idea. Carry on...!
