This week I know many of us will gather with family or friends to share a meal, watch a parade, cheer on a favorite football team… Offices will close, kitchens will warm, and the first, furtive Christmas songs will wend their way over the radio. But whatever your Thanksgiving plans, I hope your day is full of warmth, joy, and light. After all, Thanksgiving may not be a liturgical holiday, but it offers a festive chance to exercise that most joyful and necessary response to God’s gifts: lifting up our grateful hearts! It’s a response we recognize at Mass, that greatest feast of thanksgiving, when we acknowledge “our duty and our salvation” to thank God always. And it’s a response that feeds the very root of peace and joy throughout our lives, even – or especially – at times of difficulty and darkness. Few gifts are greater than the opportunity to express gratitude, for and with our loved ones, to the God who loves us with such infinite tenderness. I know, of course, that Thanksgiving Day can also present challenges. For some of us, large family gatherings can raise tensions or open old wounds. For others, loneliness or hardship become a heavier than usual cross. And even for those looking forward to visits and cheerful activities, the hubbub of preparation and the frenzied rush so quick to take over this time of year can blur us out of the present, even though the present is the only place we find God and experience His love. So, with an eye to the joys and the perils of Thursday – and to every day in which we thank God for the gift of life and love and breath – I wanted to share a quote from St. Catherine of Siena, something one of our beloved...