In the same way that vehicles have gears, to accommodate the varying speeds they travel at, so we too need to adjust our pace of life, from time to time, in order to keep travelling along the road of life. Sometimes we need to step up a gear for a season and sometimes we need to step down a gear. Sometimes we find that ‘traffic jams’, ‘road blocks’ and ‘traffic incidents’ force us to move in a way or speed that we had not intended. They say that ‘variety is the spice of life’ and as far as is possible, we do well to embrace the variety with a grateful heart.
In ‘An Ignatian Book of Days’, Jim Manney includes a Litany of Gratitude (an Ignatian Book of Days by Jim Manney, Published by Loyola Press p.117)
He suggests beginning with an awareness of God’s presence and then asking God for an awareness of all the gifts God has given you over the course of your life and also to ask for a spirit of gratitude.
- The Litany begins with thanksgiving for creation before moving on to be grateful for,
- parents,
- family,
- ourselves and our physical faculties,
- our attributes and talents,
- our friends,
- work,
- play,
- possessions,
- ending with, “Your time to live, no matter how quickly it seems to pass.”
I invite you to pray this Litany or to write your own, and to pray it every day for the next few days.