All Good Gifts

"No gifts have we to offer
For all Thy love imparts
But that which thou desirest
Our humble, grateful hearts"
FROM "WE PLOUGH THE FIELDS AND SCATTER"
BY MATTHIUS CLAUDIUS, TRANSLATED BY JANE MONTGOMERY CAMPBELL

Hmmm, what am I grateful for:

1. My long-suffering partner: His Considerable Disapproval, the Archwarden Emeritus. God grant him patience and wisdom to endure life with the Chaos Muppet.

2. Family and friends of all stripes to celebrate with, grieve with, share food, drinks and stories with

3. Gainful employment, though I grouse about it. Often.

4. A church that is evolving into full inclusion and celebration of all its people, and the guidance and direction of various folks therein which have been a great comfort of late.

5. A home that kept us safe in the crazy weather, and the fact that the hot water heater magically keeps working without electricity. Don't ask questions.

6. Living close enough to an epicenter of culture, music and food to be able to enjoy it, but also being able to hit the beach or the woods within an hour or so.

7. Things like e-books, iFruit, on-line bill pay, calendar-in-the-cloud, and dialing 5-1-1 for instant traffic information, which were the stuff of science fiction when I was a kid. The rate at which technology makes life easier almost keeps up with the rate at which I become more befuddled.

8. Coffee, chocolate, vodka and raspberries, sometimes in combination.

What are you thankful for?

 The lyrics above may be familiar to you from the cast album of the rock opera Godspell but I discovered from my adopted church that they were in fact purloined almost verbatim from the 18th-century German hymn "Wir pflügen und wir streuen" by Matthius Claudius, as translated by Jane Montgomery Camp­bell in 1861.

Here are the good people of St. John's Detroit, an Anglo-Catholic parish, celebrating Rogation (harvest) Sunday by singing this hymn.