As our wonderful young associate pastor reminded us in Mass this morning,

“Lord, it would have been enough that you gave us the Law, but then you gave us Jesus.
And, it would have been enough that you gave us Jesus, but then you gave us the Holy Spirit.
And, it would have been enough that you gave us the Holy Spirit, but then you gave us the Church.
And, it would have been enough that you gave us the Church, but then you gave us the Eucharist.”

Eucharist.  Act of Thanksgiving.  I placed upon the altar today all my little gifts, gifts given me by the Father that I return with gratitude and the hope that I have in some way increased His investment in me, just as the good servant who multiplied his master’s talents.

And, because I am currently reveling in the linguistic and theological beauty that is the new translation of John Paul II’s theology of the body, Man and Woman He Created Them, I will leave you with this delightful reflection:

“The man, on waking up from genetic sleep, expresses it immediately when he says, ‘This time she is flesh from my flesh and bone from my bones.  She will be called woman because from man she has been taken.’ (Gen 2:23)  In this way, for the first time, the man (male) shows joy and even exultation for which he had no reason before, due to the lack of a being similar to himself.  Joy for the other human being, for the second ‘I’, dominates in the words the man speaks on seeing the woman.” (Audience 8.4)

Lord, it would have been enough that you gave me your whole Self, but you gave me another “I” also.  Thank you for my spouse and helpmate.