Sunday, November 24, 2013

At the end of the day: A Thanksgiving Meditation

As is typical at Our Lady's University, this was hardly an ordinary week – we wrapped up our labors in the Basilica with a bang today. On Friday, a first-ever occasion: all the choirs of the Basilica joined forces, one hundred and fifty strong, to sing on the Feast of Saint Cecilia. Each choir sang a marvelous Mozart composition, and then, to ice the cake, we all combined for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Coronation Mass, complete with chamber orchestra. Then, the mandatory football game in November snow, and today, the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, led by our marvelous Holy Cross priest Father Bill Lies.

So this morning, as we wrapped up rehearsal, I looked at all the choristers and instrumentalists and decided on a brief story. It's the oldest of stories, the story in the Book of Genesis when God created the universe. It was told that at the end of each day, our Creator would lean back on his shovel and look at what he did – and he would call it good.

We are not good at taking time to call things good. But it was precisely this message that I wanted to get across in the midst of a tremendous weekend of work and play: Slow down, look back, give thanks for what you have done. And bring down a benediction! Call it good!


My prayer for this phenomenal group of young men and women is that, as we head into Thanksgiving, they take the time to do what God did at the end of each day: stop, look back on what was created, lean back, and call it good. Whether it be an academic paper or a musical production, a song by Bernadette Farrell or Mozart. Call it good.

'Tis the week to do this sort of thing – the week to make Thanksgiving our constant stance.


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