Dear Friends,

Along with my hope that we all find a minute to catch our breath over this week, it is my prayer that during Thanksgiving break we find ourselves surrounded by people we love, people who love us, and seated at tables with “enough.”  I’m reminded that just before Jesus performs the miracle of feeding the 5,000, he takes a moment and “looks up to Heaven and gives thanks.”  

Were I managing this miracle, I’d have my nose buried in a spreadsheet, or I’d be into the fishes and loaves up to my elbows, trying to figure out just how we were going to make a few loaves and fewer fish feed so many people.  

Let’s take our lead from Jesus.  Always start with gratitude.  

Wake up.  Find something for which to be grateful.  I went through a stint where the root (and sometimes depth) of my gratitude was simply the fact that I had coffee.  Eventually, after a lot of daily practice, I found it easier to be grateful for things I just took for granted.  Eventually, eventually, I was able to be grateful for the miracles that had not yet happened.  

Always start with gratitude.  Socks.  Clean socks.  Friendship.  Nail clippers.  Mechanical pencils.  Neighbors.  Grandparents.  With practice, this will become gratitude for family, abundance, peace, and more fishes and loaves than you could have imagined before you were this grateful.  With some bit of grace added to this practice, we may even find ourselves grateful for our shortcomings, and (God forbid) even the shortcomings of others, as these are often the ways we are drawn closer to each other and closer to our providential God.  

I hope your Thanksgiving is a time of deeply seen and felt gratitude. 

Peace,

Chris Allin
President

Jesuit High School, a Foundation for Life

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