Here at Assumption Abbey monks have much for which to be grateful. We are grateful for the turning of the seasons, for timely rains and green growing things. We are grateful too for the generous friends who believe in us and express their love and trust by supporting us financially. Generous response to our need has enabled us to plan private bathrooms for some of our elder members. They—and all of us—are very grateful for your gifts. Construction will be under way this fall and winter.
     From whence comes true gratitude? I know it when I see it, but in what soil does it grow? An old friend of mine was known for being a bit gruff, at least by first impressions. His ragged voice and crusty persona, however, did not describe his inner character. When I visited him, when I adjusted his pillows or refilled his water glass, his typical response was, “Thanks, babe,” ever in that gravelly rough voice of his. Here was a man of unsuspected tenderness, and a very grateful man.
     Gradually in my life, I am coming to understand gratitude as a virtue of the mature, and a virtue which grows in the soil of dependence. These may seem paradoxical claims, but I believe them to be true.
     It is said we grow from the profound dependence of infancy through the asserted independence of the adolescent years to (hopefully) the enlightened interdependence of mature adults. If gratitude is in short supply around us, it might be evidence that our upstart nation is still roaming in the illusion of independence. Our national myth of pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps is an adolescent myth. Such a mythology, such self-perception, can work to stunt our growth. Or we can go through and beyond this asserted independence to the mature realization of interdependence. Alois and Pauline, fifty years married, know to the marrow of their bones how they owe the best that is in them to God and to each other. The song Wind Beneath my Wings was not around when they married, but it expresses what they feel today: “The heights I can reach, I owe to you.”
     Monks try to cultivate a disposition of gratitude. In the morning we use words of the aged man Zechariah, praising God for sending us a Savior. This prayer is titled the Benedictus (see Lk 1:68-79). In the evening, we use words of the young maiden Mary, praising God for looking kindly upon us in our lowliness. (See Mary’s Magnificat prayer in Lk 1:46-55.) These hymns of gratitude “bookend” our day of prayer, each day, every day. They set the tone of our life together in service to God’s reign.
     A bitter old farmer, having suffered perhaps one too many disappointments, was on the receiving end of well-intended bedside counsel. Didn’t he know God’s providence in nature, in the sun and the rain, queried a friend. He shocked the visitor a little when he blurted out his assessment: “All that made any crop to grow was manure!” By this he meant God had not proved real attentive to his fervent pleas for rain. Trust in God is hard-won. Prayer does not work like a vending machine. We depend upon God’s providence, and we express that dependence in our prayers. We tell God what we want, and what we think we need. Also—and this is crucial—we trust ourselves to a provident Father who knows best, and will not suffer us ultimately to fall. If you are on the farm, hang in there. Whether you are on the farm or not, pray for those who work the land, and for our businesses and towns so thoroughly tied to the ebb and flow of the farm economy.
     Here at Assumption Abbey, we continue to garden and ranch, sharing the lot of our neighbors. Each year, in springtime, we celebrate a rite of blessing seeds and soil. In doing so, we thank God for his providential care, and ask blessing upon the new growing season just getting underway on our North Dakota prairie land. This year the celebration took place on May 15th. Many parishioners and other friends joined us for Vespers in church, then processed to the garden for blessing of seeds and soil. In such acts we are mindful of our dependence on God and our interdependence upon one with another. A hearty thank you to all our friends who share in our Kingdom work by your service rendered, your prayers and your financial support.