They, the Great They, want us to make time for so many things every day.  As hard workers, we are supposed to put in eight to ten hours a day of work or school.  Many work a lot more hours than that.  We’re supposed to volunteer and help out other in need.  We want to be involved and do our part.  We’re supposed to read and keep up with current events and thoughts.  How many books have we started and not finished?  We’re supposed to exercise and keep our bodies fit and in shape.  We’re supposed to work together as a family, and if we’re married, work together on our marriages.  We are to make time for prayer and reflection, so we don’t forget what all this life is all about.  And then “they” tell us that we need more rest.  “They want us to go to bed earlier and get up more refreshed and ready to go.  We have so many things to do and responsibilities to take care of, there quite literally aren’t enough hours in the day, for us to do all that we are supposed to do.  Sometimes I think I could 48 hour days, and it still wouldn’t be enough for me to get everything done that I need to.  And I know that I’m not alone.  All of us are busy.  All of us are cramming as much as possible into each and every day.  A couple of days ago, after school, I was talking with one of our first graders, who was going through her after-school schedule with me.  She had piano lessons, and cheerleading, and scouts all on the same night, her grandmother was dropping her off, her older sister was picking her up.  And she was supposed to remind her older sister to stop at the store on the way home.  And she wasn’t sure when she was going to get the chance to eat supper.  This is a first-grader’s after-school schedule!  What are we doing with our lives?  What are we doing to our kids?

       One of the first things to go, in a busy schedule, is our sense of gratitude.  When we are so busy, it is so easy to forget to say ‘thank you’.  We can forget so easily how blessed we really are.  And it is somewhere in there, when we get too busy to say ‘thank you’, that we get ourselves into real trouble.  We lose our sense of gratitude and then things really get out of perspective.  Some times, saying ‘thank you’ isn’t the last thing we should think of doing.  Many times, saying ‘thank you’ is the first thing that we should make time for.  If we forget what our blessings are, we lose out.  And we cut ourselves off from God and from one another.

        Look at our Gospel story today.  Ten lepers are healed by Jesus.  We know that leprosy was and still is a terrible affliction.  It is so bad that I can’t even tell you about it, without making myself sick.  These ten individuals were ALL healed by Jesus.  And yet, ONLY ONE of them, took the time, made the time, to come back and say ‘thank you’.  Certainly, like the other nine, this one ex-leper also had many things to do.  He probably had many people that he wanted to tell his good new to.  He, like the other nine, could have done many things with the life that Jesus had given back to him.  But he chose, he made time for, going back and saying ‘thank you’, to the One Who was the source of his good news.

         My brothers and sisters, how important it is for all of us to also go back and say ‘thank you’.  We need to make the time.  Giving thanks needs to be a priority, and not the last thing we do, when we get everything else all done!  A spirit of gratitude is absolutely essential for understanding what this life is all about.  We celebrate our gratitude today.  We make this time.  As Americans, we set aside this one Thursday every year, to give our thanks and praise to God.  But it’s one day.  One day is not enough.  We need to develop a spirit of gratitude every day.  We do need to make time for saying ‘thank you’,  thank you to God, first and foremost, and thank you to all of those in our lives who help us out every day.  That one leper realized this.  He made time.  He went back.  He thanked our Lord for what He had done.  And he was better for it.

        May we always remember to say ‘thank you’.  Our gratitude enriches our lives.  We can be dirt poor with nothing to our name, and none of us are in that situation, but if we are grateful, we will be the most blessed people in this world.

       From all of us here at St. Maria Goretti Parish and school, thank you and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

God bless us all!  And to Him be all thanks and praise,  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…   AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti…Pray for us !!!