I actually liked Meister Eckhart, the German speculative mystic and probable student of the Dominican St. Albert the Great, before he became trendy. Eckhart’s ideas around “the birth of the Word” in the human soul are at once simple – God incarnate in Jesus and Jesus incarnate in us – and wildly challenging. Perhaps it was the wonder of the Incarnation of the Word of God which birthed Eckhart’s most quoted reflection:
If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is “thank you,” it will be enough.
Today is our “thank you” day. Tucked between the increasingly over-the-top Halloween spooks and the extravagant flashing Christmas displays is our feast of Thanksgiving. Centered on a meal and family, the day is too often compressed into food, football, and shopping freebies. If we let it, it can be much more. We can incarnate the Word at our ever-expanding family table.
Leaving open places at the table for the lonely, reaching out in gratitude to those whose lives have touched us, visiting the isolated, and working to ensure no one is hungry we turn this day of “thanks-giving” into a day of “thanks-doing.”
And here’s the secret: “Thanks-doing” is the translation of the Greek word Eucharist. At every Mass we “do thanks” and are challenged to be Christ’s own body in grateful service. We too are tasked at the Eucharistic table to be Eucharist, to give birth to the Word nourished by a meal that makes us whole again.
Wherever you are this day, you are carried in the grateful hearts of the Dominican Sisters this Thanksgiving. We remember you at the Table of Eucharist and our lives.
Thank you. Your own gift of “thanks-doing,” matters. Every day of authentic loving is a “thank you” to the Word made flesh. It will be enough.
~ A note from Prioress General Sister M. Paul Mcaughey, OP and all of the Dominican Sisters of Springfield Illinois
