Turkeys - You are all turkeys.
😂🦃
As I write this on Thanksgiving Day, 2020, I am filled with gratitude to be alive.
The thanksgiving in my heart is for a King that has provided me with so much as He already has, and still wants to give me more. I find that in the greater generosity I give, even greater does He give back to me. And whenever I fall off track, He is there to pick me up, and remind me of the balance I have already gained, and the steps needed to grow even more in that human-spiritual balance we are all going through.
I am definitely excited to feast today. I think there are a few days a year where I don't really feel bad about taking a break from work, and receiving the graces (even as they come in food). Today happens to be one of them.
I won't be with my immediate family this year, as 3 of them caught the Coronavirus, but oh what a blessing that is! For in that, I get to see my extended family, some of which I am not as close to as I would like. God, through closing one door, opened opportunity for growth in another area, and for that, I am grateful!
I am also grateful, because during this time, I was able to bond with my sister (she stayed with me) – something I wouldn't have otherwise been able to do in the same way. It is so clear to me that God wants to shape me in a full and wholesome way, pruning every branch perfectly, so that I may take shape, and bear the best fruit.
Now, I go back to where it all started – where this transformation began and occurred... Because it wasn't always like that you know, I wasn't always open to the graces he had set out for me.
It happened in Adoration. In adoration, I was able to find true Thanksgiving – thanksgiving for the fact that I am alive, that I am me, and that I am loved. In adoration and thanksgiving, the unexplainable was explained - why I was created (out of love) and what I was called to do.
So, the thing about Adoration is this – you're not just meant to sit before Him. You're actually supposed to receive Him into you as True Food.
Now, if we think about how food works in our digestive system, it gets taken in, absorbed, digested, and then all the little particles and nutrients are sent throughout our body through our bloodstream, reaching every part of us. The food we eat becomes part of who we are. (This is why those Candy-Cane Joe-Joe's *erhm shout out Faith Leopold* end up as fat on our love handles! 😆)
But, what if we are eating God?
Do we become God? We ought to. By receiving the divinity of Jesus Christ - physically and spiritually, our whole beings are conformed to His likeness and perfection.
Just as one Joe-Joe won't make you fat overnight, and it takes a while to really put on the pounds, so the same is with Christ. Receiving Him once won't make us divine, but receiving Him over and over again will eventually turn us into Him.
Forget the keto or paleo diet – we need a halo-diet.
So, as you receive the gifts of Thanksgiving tonight (for in giving we receive), remember the true food that conforms us, the celebration of grace that awaits us at every altar in every Catholic Church throughout the whole world.
In receiving God, we become like Him – in our thoughts, in our actions, and even in our appearance (people will see the light emanating from you and your eyes) – just
as the temporal food we eat affects and alters all these things, either for the positive or the negative.
As children, we let our parents feed us. Let Our Father in Heaven continue to feed us with the Precious Body and Blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Peace be with you always as you spend time with family and loved ones this Thanksgiving!
Love,
Jack