Gratitude: The Language of the Heart

10-12-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

In the Gospel, Jesus teaches us the value of gratitude and how often we forget or take it for granted. It hurts to admit that frequently, we focus on what is missing and forget to thank God for our blessings. One of the most valuable attitudes we can cultivate is gratitude. Let us be grateful for everything and everyone in our lives. Blessed those who make it a practice to say: Thank you, Lord! For everything that life has given, or is giving us, the good or bad, the happiness and sadness, and still free from regrets, worries, fears, and hopelessness. “With gratitude, we shift to a higher frequency, which attracts better things.”

Why do we need to be grateful to God? “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” These words from Jesus form the foundation for a life of gratitude. When we have faith and trust, it moves us to say: “Thank you, Lord!” for everything and everyone in our lives. When gratitude becomes the essential foundation in our lives, miracles start to happen. Pray: That we may receive the gift to see life as a gift, a mission, and a lifetime full of gratitude and appreciation.

Gratitude is closely related to happiness. Let us always learn to count our blessings, share them with others, and be grateful for them. True happiness comes when we become a blessing and a source of blessings to others. “It’s not happiness that brings us gratitude. It’s gratitude that brings us happiness.”

For those who received God’s healing, forgiveness, deliverance, and prosperity, please do not forget to look up with gratitude. Let our prayer be: Lord, we gratefully, lovingly, and joyfully trust in you and entrust everything and everyone to you. Lord, help us to live a life of gratitude and joy.

Every day we are surrounded by countless blessings - an abundance of God’s graces that often go unacknowledged in the busyness of life. In truth, if we pause and reflect, we recognize that everything is a blessing: our lives, our loved ones, and all our achievements are the fruit of God’s boundless generosity.

For this reason, I hold in high regard those who live lives rooted in gratitude, recognizing the Giver behind every gift and having already entered “payback mode” — giving back through service, prayer, and stewardship. Our time to give back truly begins when we stop hoarding and start sharing. The Gospel continually calls us to make that choice — to begin our payback time now.

This year, we celebrate a remarkable milestone in the life of our parish. Twenty years after the establishment of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Parish, we are finally building a New Church, a sacred space dedicated solely to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, complete with a Daily Chapel and a 24/7 Adoration Chapel.

As we tour around the construction site of the New Church this weekend, please say a silent prayer of GRATITUDE to GOD for the many hands and hearts that have brought us to this stage, all the priests that served here, the lay leaders past and present, and the countless parishioners whose prayers, generosity, and dedication have sustained and grown our community.

From humble beginnings: Daily Masses in a parishioner’s home and Sunday Masses held in local schools, until the construction of the Spirituality Center and Parish Office (2009), and now the building of our New Church, we have indeed come a long way.

Thank you, Lord, for making all of this possible. May we continue to walk in gratitude, ever mindful of the blessings we’ve received, and ever willing to give back in love and faith.