How fitting that Advent kicks off just a few days after Thanksgiving, giving us a terrific introduction into the new year, 2022, which our Parish is calling the Year of Gratitude.

In 2022 we will encourage one another to be especially thankful for God's blessings, to look reflectively at the events in our lives for which we may not initially be thankful, and to discover anew how thankfulness lies at the heart of our faith and as a foundation of joyful, Christ-centered living.

After all, psychological study after study shows us that grateful people are healthier, cope better with adversity, and actually live longer than people who are not intentionally grateful. Because when we’re grateful we’re more present - we’re more alive.

To do that we have a rather kitchy challenge for you: Next time you come to church we are going to offer you a blue ‘Gratitude' wristband (see above). We invite you to put it on your right wrist or in your right pocket and wear it for 21 days straight. However, during that time you can’t complain. If you do complain, you have to say 2 ‘gratitudes’ (things for which you are grateful), and then transfer the wristband to the left wrist or your left pocket. You get to start all over again the next day.

I know some of you are already going to ask for two wristbands, one for each wrist, so you won't have to keep transferring it back and forth...

And while this, admittedly, sounds rather hokey, forming a more grateful heart is not.

This Sunday is the first Sunday in Advent and we will hear readings around thankfulness. 

And we will contemplate the words of a famous author once said that everything is a gift. And the degree to which we are aware of this is a measure of our gratitude, as our gratitude is a measure of our aliveness.

Let us make the year ahead one in which we are more thankful, and more alive.