“When my mother would bring me as a little girl to the Buddhist temple in Korea, she would tell me to bring along some bread for the holy man there; he would be hungry,” my good friend Duk Soon Fwang told me not long ago.
“When I became a Catholic, I found the story of the little boy who brought bread and fish to Jesus my favorite story. I have always wanted to paint that story. The little boy has no name. I wonder if his mother told him the same thing my mother told me. He could be me.”
During a recent visit, Duk Soon was working on the painting and she told me she wanted to show Jesus with his hand blessing the little boy but wasn’t sure. Maybe she could do what the painters of icons do, I suggested. Jesus’ hand, with the two index fingers joined together showed he is God and man, and his three other fingers indicating the Trinity.
The little boy is blessed by Jesus, human and divine, and by the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God blesses the small gifts we bring.
Thanksgiving. Don’t forget to give thanks for the small gifts. God blesses them. Remember the little boy.
The Victor's Place 
In a message I received today, I am urged to be grateful for little surprises. “The spontaneous acknowledgment and expression of gratitude for the previously unnoticed things that suddenly capture our awareness – the air we breathe, the smell of fresh laundry, or even life itself – come with no preconceived notions, no presumptions, no expectations. They come as a joyful surprise, a one-time, never-duplicated gift, and we are likely to recognize them as such. They refocus our awareness and thereby amplify our gratitude.”
Praise God who surprises with little gifts!
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Reminds me of the song:
Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain’d,
To bow and to bend we will not be asham’d,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.
Thank you, Fr Victor, for this blog, for your devotion to The Almighty 3 in 1, and for helping us all to seek intimacy with our Savior. Happy, Blessed Thanksgiving 2021!
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Happy Thanksgiving, John. May God give you gifts only God can give.
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