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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

5A

Are you a grateful person in general? Is thanksgiving part of your prayer?

What things (big or small) are you most grateful for in your life?

How could you express your gratitude to others more?

What other ideas or questions strike you from this part of the film?

 

5B

Why do we enjoy gossiping and complaining so much? What harm does it do? What is the solution?

How do you deal with negative thoughts and emotions? What helps you to get beyond them?

How can the Mass help us to be more grateful and to give thanks to God?

What other ideas or questions strike you from this part of the film?

 

KEY IDEAS FROM THE FILM

One aspect of prayer is to give thanks to God in prayers of gratitude. We are thanking him for who he is and for all his blessings.

The bible is full of prayers of thanksgiving. Psalm 136 opens with these lines: “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for his love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his love endures forever.”

We can thank God in our personal prayers, and whenever we go to Mass and celebrate the Holy Eucharist we are involved in a great act of thanksgiving. The word “Eucharist” actually comes from the Greek word “eucharistia”, which means “thanksgiving”.

Gratitude doesn’t just make us appreciate the gift, it also makes us appreciate the giver, the person behind the gift; it helps us to see their generosity and their love. It’s the same with God. The more we thank him, the more we understand his goodness, and the more we long to be good ourselves.

One effect of gratitude is that it helps to reduce worry and anxiety. If I give thanks for what has been achieved each day, however small, this helps to keep the day in perspective. Many of us tend to focus on negative things, on the difficulties. We see the glass as half-empty rather than half-full. It can help to take a long look at what is in the glass, rather than what is not in the glass. To give thanks for what we have. And to remember, above all, not just that the glass is half-full, but that it is refillable.

St Paul understood this. He wrote, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6-7). He says, in effect, “Yes, I know you are facing difficulties and worried about things, and it’s important that you pray for God’s help. But always do this with thanksgiving. Be grateful for what you have, before you worry about what you don’t have, and this will give you an inner peace that you don’t have.”

Thanksgiving to God should be at the heart of our prayer. Look at how often it comes up in the bible. Psalm 69 in the Old Testament: “I will praise God’s name in song, and glorify him with thanksgiving” (Ps 69:30). The teaching of St Paul in the New Testament: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thes 5: 16-18). And above all, the prayer of Jesus himself.

During the miracle of the loaves and the fish, we read that “Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted” (Jn 6:10-11). When Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead he says out loud, “Father, I thank you for having heard me” (Jn 11:41). And at the Last Supper, when Jesus establishes the Eucharist and gives us his Body and Blood, he only does this after he has given thanks to his Father for the bread and the wine (Lk 22:17-20).

Most of us are not very good at giving thanks. The secret is to unite our prayer with Jesus, so that we can share in his thanksgiving. That’s why we finish our prayers by saying, “Through Christ our Lord”, or “in the name of Jesus, the Lord” – because we want to be united with his prayer. That’s one reason we go to Mass each week, because we want to be united with his thanksgiving in the Sacrifice of the Mass. Jesus is thanking God the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is an eternal prayer that takes place within the heart of the Most Holy Trinity. We are lifted into this prayer whenever we pray in the name of Jesus.

You can get into the habit of thanking God more often, not just when something big has happened, but for the everyday things that you might take for granted. For the people in your life, for the events, for all that you have. You can keep a gratitude journal. Or spend a moment at the end of each day to remember three things that you are grateful for. Notice them and put them into words. You are counting your blessings.

It’s hard to be grateful when we are suffering or worried, we often focus on the negative. But it’s exactly at these moments that we do need to be grateful, to notice the small things when we are feeling overwhelmed by the big things. We can thank God for what we have, and we can thank him for what we hope he will do for us in the future, even if we can’t see it clearly yet. This kind of thanksgiving is an act of trust in his goodness, an act of hope.