With Grace & Gratitude (by Rev. Yanchy Lacska, PhD)

My wife, Wendy, and I recently returned from a vacation in Switzerland. In the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, grazie is the word used to say thank you. This word comes from the Latin gratia. Gratia is also the source of the word gratitude and of the word grace. In Greek and Roman mythology, The Three Graces were the goddesses who embodied all things involving beauty, joy, and abundance. In Christianity, grace became primarily thought of as the goodness and holiness that comes from God.

Thanksgiving Day is certainly about being grateful. The Roman philosopher, Cicero wrote, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the other virtues.” And, the Medieval mystic and theologian Meister Eckhart once said, “If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” 

This Thanksgiving, I would like to celebrate the grace and the natural beauty, splendor, joy, abundance, and holiness underlying everything for which we give thanks. Grace opens our senses to the beauty that is all around us. The creation story in the Jewish Book of Genesis celebrates this grace. After creating the world, “God saw everything that had been made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31), that is, everything is full of grace and divine goodness.

Everyone is familiar with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, his faithful companion Dr. Watson, and Holmes’ keen powers of observation in solving crimes. Few of us, I suspect, know that Holmes believed that deduction and observation were even more necessary to spiritual thinking. In the adventure, “The Naval Treaty,” Dr. Watson finds Holmes carefully studying a moss-rose. Watson narrates as follows:

          He held up the drooping stalk of a moss-rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson and green. “There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion,” said he. “Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are really necessary for our existence.… But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.” He had fallen into a reverie, with the moss-rose between his fingers.

Waking up at sunrise in Zermatt this late September, we were greeted by a glorious sunrise slowly illuminating the Matterhorn from our hotel room. This was another example of an “extra” Holmes was reflecting upon. We were so grateful for being there and being able to see this magnificent scene that we fell into a reverie, a state of awe, and silent prayer. This Thanksgiving, take a moment to call to mind all the little extras in your life that are, “full of grace”. While the flowers and fall colors have passed on with the late autumn, there are many embellishments and extras all around during the winter: freshly falling snow, hoarfrost on the trees, the mesmerizing sight of the flames in a fireplace, and the houses decorated for Christmas. In the Old Celtic Christian tradition, men tipped their hats and bowed and women bowed or curtseyed to the early morning rising sun and to the evening rising moon. Perhaps, this Thanksgiving, we can meditate on the extras that add beauty to our lives, and maybe even give a little bow to the moon or sun in gratitude for the grace that is all around us, and infuses us, with beauty and divine energy. Maybe we can join with poet William Blake in being able…

          To see a World in a Grain of Sand
          And Heaven in a Wild Flower
          Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
          And Eternity in an hour. 

Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.