THE GRATEFUL HEART: LIVING THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE

Recent psychological research has found an important link between gratitude and happiness. Using the key findings of this research, this book shows how Christian faith can inspire and guide our human efforts to be happy and to live gratefully. The central question that lies at the heart of this book is: How can we develop a disposition of gratitude that endures through life's ups and downs? Can we live with an abiding stance of gratefulness, as opposed to only feeling grateful when something good happens?Fostering gratitude involves reshaping our way of looking at life so that a grateful response becomes habitual. Using the lenses provided by Scripture and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, this book offers a practical and down-to-earth means of achieving this. The spirituality of gratitude presented here is timely and responsive to the realities of life in the 21st century. It treats such issues as: What awakens gratitude? What spiritual practices and beliefs foster an attitude of gratitude? What personal, cultural and societal factors hinder living with gratitude and how do we overcome them? In brief, this book presents a holistic spirituality of gratitude that can nourish our daily life and deepen our appreciation for the giftedness of life.