100 Thanks 2020
Yes, it’s been a very challenging year (the word “challenging” may be a bit charitable), but on Thanksgiving Day we still look around and see so many blessings and things for which we should be thankful. St. John Paul II once said: “Let us remember the past with gratitude, live the present with enthusiasm, and look forward to the future with confidence.” Tonight, we gather with our families in person, and in some cases via Zoom, to give thanks to the Almighty for this past year. We all know that this was a very trying year, but we must still find room in our hearts to be thankful. I remember compiling this list 6 years ago a little more than a week after my brother had passed away. Even in tragedy, before the greatness of our benevolent God, there is still room for gratitude as look forward to the future with confidence in God’s goodness.
So, as I do every year, here are the 100 things that I am thankful for in 2020:
1. Nurses
2. Doctors
3. The hospital workers that we don’t see that do the really dirty work that no one wants to do
4. The good men and women who have been standing in the heat since March at testing sites to test people who come in their cars
5. Sanitation workers
6. Delivery workers
7. Postal employees
8. First responders
9. Scientists
10. A new normal
11. The attendance at Mass creeping up ever so slightly with each passing week
12. That so many people realized this year that they couldn’t live without receiving the Eucharist
13. Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion who are taking the Lord to the elderly
14. The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick
15. The realization that our lives got too complicated and can be so much simpler
16. What’s next?
17. Christmas
18. Celebrating Christmas like we’ve never celebrated it before
19. The Incarnation
20. Papal Midnight Mass Homilies
21. The joyful and very much missed and now welcomed sound of children playing at recess
22. Unexpected, deep conversations with teenagers at recess
23. Unexpected visits
24. Unexpected phone calls from lost sheep
25. Unexpected and blissful silence of my neighborhood at night during lockdown
26. The number of children that are riding bicycles again through our neighborhood reminding me of my childhood
27. Families going for long walks
28. Compadres
29. Monthly dinners
30. Fire trucks
31. The cancer bell
32. The Christmas angels that deliver toys to children in hospitals on Christmas morning
33. Smiles on children’s faces when you walk through the halls of Children’s Hospital
34. Smiles on their nurses faces
35. The hope that one day soon we will see more smiles behind facemasks (not too sure about the clear facemasks they’re peddling now)
36. Having a congregation in front of me when I preach
37. Long confession lines
38. Unlocked church doors
39. Sharing Jesus with the world
40. That despite challenges and restrictions we can still preach the Gospel
41. Technology that didn’t exist a few years ago
42. That first person who walked through the church doors when we reopened
43. Those couples that stuck it out and got married during lockdown and did not postpone their wedding despite having only ten people in attendance and not having a reception
44. The couples that thankfully continue to persist in receiving the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony despite restrictions because they care more about the sacrament and less about the party and the superfluous
45. Patience
46. The thirst for wisdom
47. New Bibles with lots of notes and commentaries
48. That moment of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament at the end of the day
49. The absence of distractions so I can spend more time in prayer
50. The rediscovery of Carmelite Spirituality
51. The Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles
52. The joy of Christ that they share with the world
53. All Religious Brothers and Sisters
54. Seminarians and postulants and their willingness to say yes at such a young age
55. Long walks in silence around my neighborhood at dusk
56. The welcomed sight of a baseball diamond
57. The longing to hear the crack of a bat as a ball flies out of a ballpark
58. The welcomed return of sports last summer
59. The unexpected journey of the Heat to the NBA Finals
60. The expected journey of the Marlins to the Postseason
61. Rosa Negra
62. The hope that comes with a new quarterback and the joy that a bearded veteran provides
63. The throwback uniforms of the Dolphins (which should be permanent)
64. Karaoke Nights
65. “You’ll Be Back”
66. Reading 8th Grade Thanksgiving Lists
67. Compiling 8th Grade Thanksgiving Lists
68. The gift of music that allows us to pray twice
69. The beauty of a church that helps us bridge the chasm between the ordinary and the transcendent
70. The homeless couple that I met last night who reminded me that I am called to serve the poor
71. The members of our Armed Forces
72. Old kids who now serve our country in the armed forces
73. The Parish and School Fair
74. “Father, what’s in that coffee cup?”
75. Sliding down a carnival slide with nuns
76. The prayers of my parishioners
77. The constructive criticism of my parishioners
78. The overabundant generosity of my parishioners who kept bringing their priests food during lockdown
79. Online giving that has kept us afloat this year
80. The “normalness” of January and February
81. Small businesses
82. That beautiful apartment in the Keys right on the water where I spent a week in July
83. The serenity of the sun setting on a calm, glassy sea
84. The many “bull sharks” I caught this summer
85. D.C. in January for the March for Life
86. Finally walking with my brother’s brothers and sisters in the Miami Half Marathon
87. Actually completing the Half Marathon and getting a really cool medal
88. Eucharistic Processions
89. That Urbi et Orbi Blessing in an empty St. Peter’s Square in March
90. Connecting with so many former students via Facetime during lockdown and the long, honest conversations that ensued
91. Giving and receiving Spiritual Direction
92. My parents and their 46+ years of marriage
93. My siblings both here and above
94. My nephews
95. My millions of cousins
96. The grace of reconciliation and being forgiven
97. The joy of the priesthood that I want to share with every soul
98. The sublime gift of the Eucharist and the undeserved honor of being able to consecrate
99. Sitting on my front porch and gazing at our beautiful church in the evening with the setting sun making its holy walls glow
100. Being able to go home this evening and gather with my family to simply give thanks
