Gratitude and hope have a powerful connection and are even inseparable. Gratitude is a perspective that acknowledges and appreciates the positive aspects of life. It embraces the good, even in adverse times. Hope is the optimistic expectation that the future holds opportunities for positive outcomes. Hope motivates us to action and brings us to work toward positive change. Both hope and gratitude, then, contribute to a positive outlook.
When we are grateful, we are more inclined to be hopeful. We see life’s adversities as opportunities. Recently, I caught myself falling into desolation after getting bad news at the doctor’s office. After sitting in hopelessness, I began to list the blessings of my day. As I did, I could see how generous God has been with me. The more I prayed, the more I realized that God always was and will be with me. It sparked such a feeling of gratitude I began to cry. When the tears stopped, there was a sense of peace and hopefulness with me. I spend each day now grateful to God for all gifts and steeped in the hope of the Resurrection.
Gratitude is the foundation for hope. It changes our focus from lacking to gift, as we see in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus met on the road to Emmaus two disciples who were bemoaning the recent events in Jerusalem. After Jesus opened their hearts to Scripture and the promises of redemption, they invited Jesus to stay with them. When Jesus revealed his identity, they were overjoyed with gratitude for the gift of Jesus explaining the Word to them. No longer disheartened, their hearts were burning with hope once again, knowing they had met their Savior.
Hope takes gratitude and turns it into resilience and action. When the woman at the well met Jesus, she was a downtrodden outcast reluctant to interact with him. Jesus mercifully revealed her sins and then forgave her. Experiencing Jesus’ unconditional love, the woman became overjoyed with gratitude. No longer ashamed of who she was, she returned to her village to proclaim the hope of God’s Kingdom to her neighbors.
We can cultivate these two sacred attitudes of gratitude and hope by starting with St. Ignatius’s Principle and Foundation. It’s a beautiful statement of God’s relationship to us as our creator and giver of good things and our response as God’s beloved. God provides all good things for us, and we in turn use all in thanksgiving for God’s greater glory. Praying the Principle and Foundation on a regular basis encourages a grateful, positive attitude and inspires us to be good stewards of all God’s gifts while fostering hope in the Resurrection’s promise.
Another way to cultivate our sacred attitudes is praying the Suscipe. This is a beautiful prayer of surrender, which comes out of a heart of gratitude. As in the Principle and Foundation, we recognize God’s gifts. Grateful for God’s blessings, we offer those gifts back to God for God’s greater glory. Praying this prayer from the heart fosters humility, trust, gratitude, and hope.
