Holy Angels Catholic Church in West Bend, Wisconsin shared a note from Rev. Howard Haase on the idea of being thankful. 

“Giving thanks for our blessings is a practice we ought to make a part of our lives on a daily basis. Too readily we live as if all we have and all we enjoy is the work of our own hands,” Haase wrote. 

We can easily apply our work ethic to our lives and justify our thoughts of ownership through this, adding to our list of accomplishments the fact that we are good people and so we deserve what we have. 

“Though we are, for the most part, good people and have worked hard for what we have, it does not ring true. God has been and continues to be incredibly good to us. To fail to give thanks is to fail to live with a deep sense of gratitude each day of our lives,” Haase wrote. 

Thanksgiving is a natural time of year to think about all that we have and offer our thanks for all that we are blessed with, but we, as Christians, must be careful not to only think on and thank God for everything on this day. 

“Have you ever paused for a moment and asked yourself why you were born in this nation, in this city and/or at this time when you could potentially have been born in any place in the world where there is great poverty, war, national violence, starvation and the list goes on,” Haase wrote. 

We should not feel guilty for having what we have and having been born into a land of plenty, but we should direct our thoughts and actions back to the Lord, thanking him for all that we have. 

“Pray for those who find this holiday time to be painful and struggle to know what to be thankful for. We need each other,” Haase wrote.