My women's small group from church is reading Fr. Jacques Philippe's "The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Thérèse of Lisieux." While reading the chapter past night, I came across this passage, which struck me for a number of reasons. It is actually a quote from Thérèse via her real life and Carmelite sister, Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face from a memoir titled "A Memoir of My Sister St. Thérèse."
What most attracts God's graces is gratitude, because if we thank him for a gift, he is touched and hastens to give us ten more, and if we thank him again with the same enthusiasm, what an incalculable multiplication of graces! I have experienced this: try it yourself and you will see! My gratitude for everything he gives me is limitless, and I prove it to him in a thousand ways.
I recently read about how abundant God's graces are, but that so often we forget to ask him for them! I have started to try to remember this in my prayers throughout the day.
The passage also speaks to me, as through this blog I am trying to focus my year on gratitude and to overcome my tendency to complain. I do believe he will give me the grace to do just that if I ask for it and continue to strive in my practice of daily gratitude.
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