Daily Prayer & Reflection
Our Franciscan Charism focus for this school year is: RESPECT/REVERENCE AND GRATITUDE
To revere someone, or something, is to afford that person or thing more than just respect. The word reverence conveys a sense of treasuring with unquestioned esteem or awe. Reverence implies, by its nature, a sense of sacredness. Reverence reminds us that each and every one of us is created in God's own image and likeness. The opening of the Book of Genesis tells us this. We also need to appreciate that the phrases, 'God's image and likeness' and 'God saw that it was good,' were spoken by God on each day of creation, including our source of life and well being - our Mother Earth - as well as our own creation. Our responsibility is not to dominate by destroying, abusing, or making extinct any part of the delicate balance of this world in which we live, but to steward and care all creatures, human and animal, as well as all aspects of nature that sustain our human existence from day to day. We live our calling when, as children of God and God's world, we foster this reverence toward one another and toward our earth. How we are responding to this call to reverence for one another and our world is a question each and every one of us must answer with our voice and our actions each and every day. We strive to move forward together with this sense of reverence for one another and for our earth as we live our daily lives, consciously choosing to treat one another as we would like to be treated, both here at TCHS and beyond. We strive to make good decisions when affecting the world in which we live as well.
May God bless all of us as we share this journey together.
Thanksgiving is a full month away! And, although we see lots of evidence of forcing the Christmas season to an even earlier start than usual, I would suggest that it is never too soon to think 'thankfully.' In fact, Thanksgiving, GRATITUDE, should be a very important part of every day of our lives. It is important to remember that a sense of gratitude calls us to consider, first of all, the countless gifts we possess. Many of these things we take so for granted: the ability to hear our morning alarms, the strength to get up and out of bed on our own, the luxury of having spent the night in a safe and secure home, the purpose for which we set the alarm in the first place, the vehicle we use to get wherever we want...and that's only the beginning of a very full day with countless other gifts, but how often do we think of them? How many people in how many places in this world cannot enjoy even one of the things mentioned above? Why can I? Maybe starting today, each day, we can look for 3-5 things we enjoy and value...and say, 'thank you for my blessings, good Lord.'The words of Day Schildkret may help:"Offering genuine gratitude comes from a willingness to take account of all we have been given and to understand that none of it was earned or guaranteed.' Even the abilities to accomplish what we do are gift, if we think about it. It might just be a good idea to take a 5 minute gratitude break in our day and make a list or two."Rachel Carson, over half a century ago, made this plea:"It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauty to know of wonder and humility."
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