Fr. Bryce Lungren: Thank You, Jesus: Gratitude Is an Exercise of the Heart …

By Fr. Bryce Lungren, Crisis Magazine, May 2, 2024

Fr. Bryce Lungren was blessed to grow up in a family with deep Wyoming roots. After graduating high school in Worland, WY in 1998, he moved to Montana where he worked in the world and grew in his Catholic faith. …

Gratitude is an exercise of the heart not the mind, and as such it gives the mind the space it needs to rest.

We’ve all had the experience of waking up at night and not being able to go back to sleep. Such was the case for me not long ago. Usually, in this situation, my mind would find a train of thought and then take off. We all know how that story ends: toss and turn for the next three hours; then, at last, your mind tires out and you fall back to sleep—just in time for the alarm to go off and you have to face the day.

Well, this time I caught my mind before it ran away. Often, a guy will try to pray or focus on his breathing in order to prevent nighttime daydreaming. Instead of exercising those tactics, the Lord placed on my heart the words, Thank you, Jesus. Lo and behold, I fell back to sleep. …

Continue reading >>>>>>>>