“Well they did not even say thank you, dog”. This expression carries with it a sense of anger. Indignation. It carries with it a sense almost of scorn for the person who is so ungrateful.

Ingratitude - lack of a thank you - hits us. We know that there is something wrong with it. So, let's think about God for a little while. What do we know about God? We know lots of things. But certainly one of the basics that we know about God is that God is the source of life. There is nothing that exists apart from God. God is Creator.

We know that not only is God Creator of everything, but God is sustainer of everything. We know that as human beings, we not only have our origin in God, but what we know about God is that God offers human beings a covenant, that God desires to draw people into a relationship, that God desires to share life with human beings.

We also know this desire of God, to draw people into relationship, to draw people into life with Himself. This desire of God to draw us into life with God is so strong that the Word becomes flesh. This love of God is so strong that Jesus strips himself of everything that is divine and becomes flesh for our sake.

We know this about God. And we also know that to sustain us, to fulfill us, to transfigure us, God comes in the Holy Spirit. We know lots of things about God. We know that God created. We know that God sustained. God invited human beings to share life. God becomes flesh and blood through the self-giving of Jesus. And God continues to pour out His Spirit.

What about us? Let us stop for a minute and think about human beings. Well, we know one thing – we are dependent – we did not make ourselves. We know that we are dependent for life on God. We know that not only are we dependent for life on God, but we know that God's activity is for us.

So it tells us something about the worthiness, if you wish, the dignity of human life. That God desires to share life with us, tells us something not only about God, but it tells us something about ourselves. – that we are worthy of the blood of God. So, on the one hand we have God, all-powerful.

We have God who has brought everything into being. We have God who sustains life. We have God who invites us to life. We have ourselves – dependent, vulnerable, fragile on the other hand. What is our response then to this God who has done everything for us, this God who has given us life, this God who has given us the offer of eternal life, this God from whom everything was given? My body given for you. My blood poured out for you. What is our response?

Well surely the human response must be gratitude. The response must be “Lord, thank you”. Our response must be “Lord thank you, for you have looked on us in our nothingness”.

When we stop to think who God is and what God has done, and we think about ourselves as human beings, of what we can do and what we have done, what else must flow from us other than gratitude for this God who has given us everything?

Scripture reminds us constantly of the need to be grateful. And the Church reminds us. Those of us who are familiar with the Morning Prayer of the Church know the psalm from scripture that says “ Come ring out our joy to the Lord. Hail the God who saves us. Let us come before him giving thanks ”.

Msgr Michael deVerteuil delivers the sermon at last Sunday's Laventille Devotions

This is the psalm that is written in the Prayer of the Church to begin our day with. We remember what the Lord has done, and our response is gratitude.

Prayer takes on all kinds of forms. We pray penitentially. We pray asking God for forgiveness. We pray in intercession asking God for all kinds of different things.

We pray in adoration. All of this is part of prayer. But gratitude, I think, must be the centre of it all. If we marvel at all God has done, gratitude must be a part of our personal prayer. Not only must gratitude, not only must thanksgiving be part of our personal prayer, but it is also an essential part of our communal prayer, of our prayer together.

The prayer of celebration we call the Eucharist

Once again we look at the prayer we have been given – this prayer of the Mass, this prayer of celebration we call the Eucharist. Now the very name itself tells us something. For we know that the very name “Eucharist” comes from the Greek word that means thanksgiving.

Many of you were here for Mass celebrated a short while ago. Most of us, if not all of us, have celebrated Mass today. What have we done? Why have we gone to this Mass? We gather Sunday after Sunday for celebration, and for some of us it is pure habit.

Some of it is because we need the strength from God. We need to receive Communion to draw closer to the Lord. But I think the first and foremost reason for our gathering together is Eucharistic, thanksgiving to God. We recognise always who God is, what God has done and our “undeservedness”. Let us come before the Lord giving thanks.

Our gratitude is something we often forget – our gratitude for our Sunday celebrations. Sometimes we need to sit back and reflect on our Sunday celebrations. It is a good thing to do. And yet sometimes we have to wonder are we truly grateful to God? Is it a gathering of God's people thanking God for all God's goodness?

So, let us look for a little while at this Eucharist – this aspect of Eucharist, of thanksgiving. So here we are a people gathered in our parishes, gathered at this Shrine, gathered on the day of the Lord.

We are standing with one another. We are assembled together to praise, to thank God. We are coming to this encounter with God. On the one hand is God, all-powerful, needing nothing. On the other hand, the human being – totally dependent.

How is this encounter possible? How can we come together before this God? Well there is only one way. This has been made possible through Jesus Christ and that is why we come through Christ. It is Christ who makes this Sunday encounter possible.

But it is not only through Christ that we come, it is also with Him. As St Paul says in the letter to the Colossians ( 1: 18 ), “ Now the Church is His body, he is its head ”. So when we gather on this day of the Lord, when we gather to celebrate this Eucharist, the body of Christ is there with its head.

So we come through him and we come with him, the head of the body. We come in him. We stand there with one another and with Christ whose whole life was a thanksgiving to the Father. As St.Paul says “ Make of your whole lives a living sacrifice of praise to God ” (Romans 12:1)

So we come uniting ourselves with the head of the body. We come with him, in him to offer this living sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God. We come in the unity of the Holy Spirit. For what? What are we gathering there for?

So that we can come through him. with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit to proclaim all honour and glory to God. We come thanking God for God's graces. For God is the God who has made us. St John in his first letter has said “ Think of the love that the Father has lavished upon us. By letting us know ourselves as his children ”.

There we are, children of God, gathered with, in and through Jesus Christ, coming to give thanks. We hear it in the Word. This Word for which we give thanks. We say, “Thanks be to God”.

We say, “Praise be to you Jesus Christ”. We thank God for the Word that we have heard, this Word that tells us why we should be a grateful people. This word that tells us why we should gather to thank God. This word that reveals more and more the love of God for us in our unworthiness.

The Word that reminds us of God's act, particularly that great act of God in the life, the death and the resurrection of Christ. We hear the word in thanksgiving – “thanks be to God”. “Praise be to you”.

Preparation of the gifts

And then we prepare the gifts. As you hear the prayer we are reminding ourselves why thanksgiving is at the heart, why thanksgiving is the centre of our response to God. “ Blessed are you Lord God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made .”

“ Blessed are you Lord God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this wine to offer ”. So at the beginning now, as we ready this table, we come before the Lord remembering that without God we have nothing.

That before human hands could make anything, we first of all have to have the gift of God, and so we come as we prepare the table in gratitude, thanking God for all His goodness. Yes we have bread. Yes we have wine. Yes human hands made it. But before human hands made it, God provided what we needed. All the gifts.

The Eucharistic Prayer

And so we come now to what the Church tells us is the centre and summit of the celebration. The Church tells us that the center and the summit of our celebration is the Eucharistic prayer –

a prayer of thanksgiving.

Listen to the prayer:

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give him thanks and praise.

Father Almighty and ever living God we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks .

Now isn't that wonderful! We do right always and everywhere to give you thanks. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God . This is a grateful people.

This is a grateful people assembled together coming with Jesus Christ, the head, t hrough Jesus Christ who has made this thanksgiving possible, and we recognise that God has loved, and we recognise that therefore we cannot be ungrateful. For we do well always and everywhere to give God thanks.

In Eucharistic Prayer II and Eucharistic Prayer III we have different reminders of the thanksgiving. So we say “ all creation rightly gives you praise. All life, all holiness comes from you ”. We say “ we thank you for counting us worthy to stand in your presence ”.

We say “ we offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice ”. And as we thank God remembering all that God has given us, out of our thanksgiving flows intercession. “Lord, you have done such marvellous things and we thank you for all of this. And we thank you that you hear our prayer.

Lord, hear our prayer for the whole Church. Hear our prayer for the world. Hear our prayer for those who have died”. And we end this whole prayer that the Church tells us is the center and summit of our prayer: “ Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, almighty Father, forever and ever. Amen ”.

In saying that “Amen” we recognise the thanksgiving that we are called to be. We recognise God's goodness and the gratitude that the celebration of the Eucharist is at its heart. And our “Amen” underlines that we are a grateful people.

To become a more grateful people, is not so easy. There is no button we press when we walk into our parish church on a Sunday. There is no thanksgiving button. There is no gratitude switch that we can tap or press.

It is a habit we grow into. And it is something therefore I think we as Christians need to do in our everyday life. Practise becoming a more grateful people, so when we gather on the day of the Lord, with other grateful Christians, our gratitude grows and becomes stronger. Therefore we have to make it a habit, as many of you do, of thanking God.

Sr Arlene Greenidge OP, Oneka Isaac (left) and Diamond Henderson (right) lead the singing at last Sunday's Laventille Devotions.

Thanking God for the food we eat, for the day we have had, for the day that is ahead, for the night we have had, for the night that is ahead. Thanking God for the roof over our heads. Thanking God for so much in every day that we take for granted.

And it is a habit. You know we feed many things. We feed our anger when we remember what people have done to us. Sometimes we are an ungrateful people. And we feed our anger by remembering: “look what she did”, “look what he did”, “how they could do this?” “how they could do that?”

And we get angrier and angrier. We feed all kinds of things. We feed our jealousy. But what about feeding our gratitude? What about feeding our gratitude by making it a habit in all sorts of little ways and every day in saying thank you to God.

So that when we come to the Eucharist to thank God for the great thing He did for us in Jesus Christ, our gratitude comes from a truly thankful heart.

We also need to pay attention in our celebration of the Eucharist. If I am gathered there to thank God, to join with Jesus Christ in thanking the Father, then surely I have to do all that I can in my responses. Do I sing?

Do I respond fully as we proclaim Holy, Holy, Holy ? Do I enter fully? Do I join in the acclamations? For with a grateful heart we begin to recognise all that God has done for us, and it must mean that we enter into the Eucharist with an intensity of gratitude and joy.

We come before the Lord singing for joy. And we give thanks to this God who has saved us.

As gratitude becomes more and more central to our lives, we recognise more and more that everything is gift. And therefore, not only does it bring us into a right relationship with God, but it brings us more and more into a right relationship with one another. Then if everything I recognise is gift, then I do not have to be in competition with anybody else.

I don't have to be fighting with anybody else. I don't have to be jealous of anybody else. When we become more thankful and recognise that everything is gift, it brings us into right relationship with God and into right relationship with each other.

CS Lewis, a well-known Christian writer, says to love and delight in the worthiest object of all, and every moment to give this delight perfect expression then that soul would be in supreme gratitude. What I think CS Lewis is talking about is heaven.

What is happening in heaven? Well, we are delighting in the worthiest object of all – God. What else is more worthy of our love and attention than God? So to delight in this worthiest object of all, and to be able to give this delight expression by thanking and praising, that is heaven, CS Lewis tells us.

That is what we are going to be doing in heaven. When we read all the images of heaven that John of Patmos had in the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse), everybody gathered there praising and thanking God.

Worthy, worthy, worthy are you. Blessed are you. All in heaven blessing and thanking God. And that is what our lives are about. That is why the Church tells us that the centre and summit of our celebration of the Eucharist, is our thanking God.

Because it is a foreshadowing, my brothers and sisters, of what each of us is created for. Until that time when we come to do this in heaven, we express our thanksgiving and lives to the worthiest object of all, through, with and in Jesus Christ in unity of the Holy Spirit in the celebration of the Eucharist.

Until the time when we come to this rejoicing in heaven, this Eucharistic celebration is the centre and summit of our Christian life, and the centre and summit of our celebration of the Eucharist. Praising and thanking God who is worthy of all our praise.

And that is why, and particularly in this the Year of the Eucharist, we need to pay more attention. We need to learn more and more of what this tremendous gift is, that we gather Sunday after Sunday to celebrate, to thank and bless God.

Until that time when we come to heaven to do it together, with a joyful praise, let us ring out our thanks to the God who has saved us. Every Sunday. Every day of the Lord.

From Sacred Heart in Delaford to Sacred Heart in Mamoral to Sacred Heart in La Brea . From St Anthony's in Petit Valley to St Anthony's in Point Fortin. Let our thanksgiving rise up through Jesus Christ to the Father, so that the blessings of God may come down upon us.

From St Theresa's in Malick to St Theresa's in Rio Claro , let praise and thanksgiving rise before God. From Mt. Carmel in Carapaichaima to Mt Carmel in New Grant. From St Francis in Sangre Grande to St Francis in Erin , may the thankful people of Trinidad and Tobago ring out their thanksgiving to God, the Almighty Saviour.

From Assumption in Toco to Assumption in Port of Spain , may God find a grateful people. From St Peter's in Mayaro to St Peter's in Carenage.

We know what we are called for, we know that we are called to be – a thankful people, a Eucharistic people. Throughout our land, throughout our archdiocese, may we celebrate Eucharist through Jesus Christ, with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit in this land may all glory and honour be to God forever and ever. Amen.

Almighty God we thank you that you reveal yourself in the words of scripture. We thank you God that you reveal yourself most perfectly in Jesus Christ. We thank you that you reveal yourself as the God of love –the God of life, for all life, all holiness comes from you.

Lord, we recognise our nothingness, our unworthiness, and with Mary we proclaim, O God, that our soul magnifies you, we rejoice in you because you have looked on us in our nothingness.

Lord, help us to be thankful. May gratitude O Lord, overpower everything else in our lives, so that it may be the heart of our prayer.

Lord, we pray for our Eucharistic celebrations throughout this archdiocese, everywhere O Lord God where the Mass is celebrated may you find a thankful people. May you find a grateful people. Lord, we pray that through the power of your Spirit all our celebrations of the Eucharist may be worthy of your love.

Lord, grant us, each one of us individually and personally, a grateful heart. Help us to see your hand of blessing, your hand of divine providence everywhere and help us Lord, to be thankful.

Lord God, we pray that in this Year of the Eucharist we may be renewed in our celebration of the Eucharist. That we may be renewed, O Lord God, in zeal and love and in thanksgiving for all your people.

Lord, we do right always and everywhere to give you praise. We make this prayer through Christ Our Lord, Amen.