Reasons To be Thankful

Nov 28

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I wish with all my heart a happy Thanksgiving to all my (particularly US) readers.

I am reflecting now on the things that I am grateful for. Not to “the world”, or just grateful “in general”. No, I am thinking about what is that I am grateful to God for.

And it seems to me that the thing that, when I am on my death bed (and by extension, on this day), I will be most grateful for is my beautiful Catholic faith. I mean by this the mere fact – utterly unmerited, of course – of being born, baptised, and confirmed a Catholic.

God knows, if I had had the misfortune of being born in a Muslim family, I would now resolutely march towards almost assured damnation. If I had been born in an atheist household, I would likely be in possibly an even worse situation. If I had been born in a Protestant household, unless perhaps a very devout one, my chances of salvation would objectively not be the ones I have now, comfortably resting on the deck of the Barque of Peter.

Yes: the Barque of Peter is dirty, in dire need of maintenance, steered by a vulgar, drunken, cursing helmsman, and unable to stay the course in a halfway decent fashion whilst she is mercilessly shaken by the strong winds and the fierce waves of the secular society. But I know that the barque will never sink, and this is – in the great scheme of things – good enough for me, and a huge blessing.

Therefore, on the day of this beautiful tradition, I will not write about, and will try not to focus on, the thousand problem plaguing the Church, or the latest antics of the holy farter (hat tip to reader Sage Hart for this apposite nickname!).

No: on this day, I will pray my prayers of thanksgiving for the great grace of being a Catholic, and the great comfort of being a member of the One Church, no matter in what shape She may be today. I hope, one day, to be ferried by this Barque safely to ( I think) Purgatory, and from there, one wonderful day, to Heaven.  God has made His Barque such, that the helmsman will never be able to prevent Her from transporting to safety all those who are meant to be saved. On that day, the drunken helmsman will be totally irrelevant.

It is a great grace, to be a Catholic.

Let Francis drown in his own bile. Today, I will focus on the great gift he will never be able, with God’s grace, to take away from me.

 

 

Posted on November 28, 2019, in Catholicism, Conservative Catholicism, Traditional Catholicism. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.

  1. Michael Dowd | November 28, 2019 at 9:49 am

    Amen Mundabor. Well said. Our Catholic faith is our light in the darkness as we say the Creed on Sunday. We are part of the Mystical Body of Christ which will never fail us. Let us consider the Bergoglio episode a test of our Faith, which in the Creed, never mentions the Pope. Christ is in charge. He will act to correct the hierarchy at the appropriate time.

  2. John J. Marren, Jr. | November 28, 2019 at 1:19 pm

    Hello Mundy and a Happy Thanksgiving from one of your USA readers….

    Thanks for the post so to remind me of what I really should be grateful for:

    I will happily offer a Thanksgiving day rosary for your intentions with the hope that God will listen to my prayers:

    “As Augustine observes near the beginning of Book I, “nothing that exists would exist without” God. All things have their existence in God.

    “He who made me is good, and he is my good too,” Augustine continues, “rejoicing, I thank him for all those good gifts which made me what I was, even as a boy.” He thanks God for His good gifts:

    Do you preserve them for me.
    So will you preserve me too,
    and what you have given me will grow and reach perfection,
    and I will be with you; because this too is your gift to me
    — that I exist.”

  3. Siobhan | November 28, 2019 at 3:17 pm

    Amen! Happy Thanksgiving back to you, Mr. M.

  4. sixlittlerabbits | November 29, 2019 at 2:19 am

    Happy Thanksgiving to you, Mundabor, from the USA. Yes, it is a day when we thank GOD for our blessings.

  5. Joe Alf | December 1, 2019 at 3:02 am

    Apologies for the delayed comment but a huge week long family gathering at my home kept me quite busy.
    One thing I am most grateful for is my involvement in the amazing Catholic Church represented abundantly at St Thomas More Priory in Sanford Florida.
    This must be one of the most fruitful groups of Catholics in the world.

    http://www.sspxflorida.com/en

    Check out our live broadcast of the Sunday 9:30 am Mass;

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5AwyRmhCooK05cufOGAG1w?&ytbChannel=null

    Our annual 110 mile pilgrimage to St Augustine ;

    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Pascua+Florida+Pilgrimage

    Where the first Thanksgiving actually happened; with a Holy Mass.

    The man portraying General Pedro Menendez in the video is a Novus Ordo Priest who spends all his spare time at the SSPX Priory here and is saying the true Mass for the Diocese.

    And many of our Priests and parishioners are instrumental in the annual Pilgrimage to Quito.

    https://sspx.org/en/quitopilgrimage

    https://www.voxcatholica.com/

    What fruits we have here! What a Blessed place! Deo Gratias!
    Have a Blessed Advent Mundabor!
    Joe

  6. cmlarose | December 9, 2019 at 1:10 am

    There is even hope for a baptized Protestant to find his way home to Rome, for this, i am completely grateful – 26 yrs Catholic. Thanks be to God!