Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Gratitude and Respect

Thank You!

After Morning Prayer the sisters walk from chapel to breakfast. The first one holds the door. Each sister says Thank You. Saturday when I ran the dishwasher I was thanked over and over as sisters brought their dishes in to the scullery. There was a time when I wondered why they were expressing gratitude for such a simple, ordinary, and daily task.

Emails cross in the air many times a day. Some request information or a document, which, when sent, prompts a Thank You email. I have also wondered about these. Should we be clogging up someone’s Inbox with a two-word message?

It’s not just the monastery. People enter a store, and while passing through glance behind them to see if anyone is nearby, and then hold the door. Someone in the grocery line motions to you to cut in because you have only two items.

Sure, there is rudeness in the world, and sometimes in the monastery too. I have a growing awareness, though, of the abundance of sincere gratitude that is here and elsewhere, founded on respect and care, person to person.

                                                                   You’re Welcome!

      Sr. Christa Kreinbrink, OSB

2 comments:

  1. Sr. Christa, Thank you for all you do for the community of St. Walburg and the larger community of Villa Hills. You commitment to taking care of the grounds/world is inspiring.

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  2. Dear sister, thank you for this. Gratitude is the beginning and end of faith. The opposite is the darkness we must defeat. The advanced are able to be grateful for suffering. But sometimes we must not say thank you too much. It should not be used as a penance. Someone lying there unable to speak and one after another they say thank you, how wearisome it could be. To say thank you, and to feel thankful. Help me O Lord to feel thankful as I ought to for all the blessings you have given, amen. God bless OSB Happy Easter amen.

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