Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
My reflection today is simple. Let us orient ourselves toward God in gratitude and focus today on singing God’s praise. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and our attention is already tuned to being thankful. That attitude may not be as easy for some of us this year; we arrive at this holiday season in a time of great turmoil, hardship, and a myriad of disappointments. It’s not easy to maintain joy and gratitude during times like this. Singing God’s praise is an antidote to despair, and praise ignites gratitude every time, if we’re willing to allow it. Today’s readings open the way for us.
Our first reading takes us to the throne room of God again, where the saints who had won the victory over the beast sing a chorus of praise. We join their company as we stand confidently victorious because of Christ’s sacrificial death, resurrection, and ascension. Let’s raise our voices with theirs, as together we declare, “Great and wonderful are your works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O king of the nations. Who will not fear you, Lord, or glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All the nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” Great and wonderful are your works . . . I invite you to pause and spend a few moments naming God’s great and wonderful works in your life and in the world around you. Just begin to name them and let the list pour out of you. Notice how you feel as you continue to name God’s wonderful works. Does it inspire you to gratitude? Begin to thank God for all these evidences of the divine in your life.
Our psalm selection is a wonderful song of praise today, as well, with the refrain from the first reading. The psalmist entreats us, “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done wondrous deeds . . .” I wonder, what might your new song be today? As you spend time naming, recounting, and giving thanks for the loving, gracious, and merciful activity of God in your life, do you notice any shift or change within you? Your new song could literally be a song that rises up within you, or it might be a change in attitude, a resolution, a conviction, an experience of conversion. Whatever it is, let your life sing that new song today in a continual offering of praise to the One who gives us life and victory.
Elizabeth Wourms