Giving Thanks Always

Gratias agentes semper pro omnibus, in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi Deo et Patri. Huic quid simile et in Epistola ad Thessalonicenses prima scriptum est: Semper gaudete, sine intermissione orate, in omnibus gratias agite. Quod praeceptum ille solus custodire potest, qui providentia Dei novit etiam quinque passeres, qui venduntur dipondio, gubernari: quorum unus non cadit in laqueum sine Patris voluntate. Quod autem ait: 'Gratias agentes, et semper, et pro omnibus,' dupliciter intuendum, ut et in omni tempore, et pro omnibus quae nobis accidunt, Deo gratias referamus: ut tantum pro his quae bona putamus, sed etiam quae nos coarctant, et contra nostram veniunt voluntatem, in Dei praeconium mens laeta prorumpat, et dicamus: 'Nudus exivi de utero matris meae, nudus et redeam: sicut placuit Domino, ita factum est: sit nomen Domini benedictum. Haec actio gratiarum apud prudentes viros, et generaliter et specialiter observatur. Generaliter, ut gratias agamus Deo, quod nobis sol oritur, dies currit, nox mutantur in requiem, splendore lunae tenebrae temperantur, et ortu occasuque stellarum tempora mutantur et redeunt: quod nobis serviunt pluviae, terra parturit, elementa famulantur: quod tantae animalium varietates, vel ad vehendum, vel ad operandum, vel ad vescendum, vel ad tegmen, vel ad exemplum, vel ad miraculum datae sunt: et ad extremum, quod nati sumus, quod subsistimus, quod in mundo quasi in quadam domo potentissimi patrisfamilias procurationem gerimus, et totum quidquid in mundo est, nostri causa intelligimus procreatum. Specialiter vero, quando in Dei beneficiis quae nobis accedunt, gratulamur. Sed hoc et gentilis facit, et Judaeus, et publicanus, et ethnicus. Christianorum propria virtus est, etiam in his quae advsera putantur, referre gratias Creatori. Si domus corruerit, si amantissima uxor et filii vel captivitate, vel veneno, vel naufragio intercepti sint, si divitias proscriptione perdidimus, si sanitatem innumerabiles morbi, et semper exspectanda miseris podagrae debilitas fregerit. Qui sibi santiores videntur, solent Deo referre gratias quod de periculis, vel de miseriis liberati sunt. Sed juxta Apostolum haec virtus est maxima, ut in ipsis periculis atque miseriis, Deo gratiae referantur, et semper dicamus: Bendictus Deus, minora me scio sustinere quam mereor: haec ad mea peccata parva sunt: nihil mihi dignum redditur. Hic animus Christiani est, hic curcem suam tollens, sequitur Salvatorem, quem nec orbitas, nec damna debilitant. Quem, ut Flaccus in lyrico carmine ait: 'Si fractus illabatur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinae.' Sanctus Hieronimus, Commentarius In Epistolam Ad Ephesios, Lib III, Cap V Source: Migne PL 26.529-530

Giving thanks always for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Something very much like this is written in the first letter to the Thessalonians: ' Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in all things give thanks.' 2 Which precept he alone is able to guard who knows that by the providence of God even five sparrows that are sold for two coins are guided that not one of them falls into the trap without the will of the Father. So he says 'Give thanks always and for everything.' Two things must now be considered, the reference to every time and the reference to everything which befalls us, that we must direct thanks to God not only for those things we think good but even those which try us and come against our will, that the happy mind must break forth into a cry to God and that we should say with Job, ' Naked I came out of the womb of my mother, naked I shall return, so it has pleased the Lord, so it is done, blessed be the name of the Lord.' 3 This act of thanks is of the prudent man and in both general and specific matters it is observed. In general matters we should give thanks to God that the sun rises on us, that the day passes, that night brings rest, that the darkness is tempered by the glow of the moon, that the rising and the settings of the stars in time change and return, that the rains serves us, that the earth brings forth things which are useful to us, including varieties of the animals that may bear burdens, or do work, or be food, or by used for coverings, or provide examples, or be admired, and further that we are born, that we exist, that in this world we are as the ruling agent of a powerful head of a household, and all things in the world that provide for our subsistence. In specific affairs when benefactions come to us by God we rejoice, but even the pagans do this and the Jews and the tax collectors and barbarians. It is a special virtue of the Christian to render thanks to the Creator even in things they think averse, If one's house falls down, if one's most beloved wife and children are taken off by captivity, or poisoning, or shipwreck, if wealth is lost by law, if health is exhausted by countless ailments, if the miseries of gout are to be born. They may seem more saintly who are accustomed to give thanks to God because they have been freed from danger or misery but contrary to this is the great virtue of the Apostle which would have it that in every danger and misery we should offer thanks to God and always say, 'Blessed be God, I know that he sustains my littleness more than I am worth, and this is little for my sins, nothing worthy of what could be returned.' This is the soul of a Christian, this picks up the cross, this follows the Saviour who neither grief nor loss weakened. So Horace in his lyric poems said, ' If the whole world falls apart, It would strike him unmoved.' 4 Saint Jerome, Commentary on The Letter to the Ephesians, Book 3, Chapter 5 1 Ephes 5.20 2 1 Thes 5 16-18 3 Job 1.21 4 Horace Odes 3.3.7-8