Episode:Thanksgiving—The Spirit of Gratitude

From Symmetry of Soul


The more healthful attitude of spiritual meditation is to be found in reflective worship and in the prayer of thanksgiving. Jesus exhorted his believers to employ prayer as a means of leading up through thanksgiving to true worship. The Master quoted from the Scriptures, saying: "It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to the name of the Most High, to acknowledge his loving-kindness every morning and his faithfulness every night, for God has made me glad through his work. In everything I will give thanks according to the will of God."

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Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Thanksgiving, Gratitude, Christ

Note: This episode was specially themed around Thanksgiving, as we had just completed The Paradise Ascent (study arc). This episode is not exactly part of that arc, but it lumped with it for convenience.

Summary by Kermit

Having finished the long arduous climb from our material origins to being mustered into the Corps of the Finality the week before, we rested and reflected on the spirit of thanksgiving in preparation for our American national holiday of Thanksgiving.

Reading sequentially, the passages in the revelation containing “thanksgiving”, we encountered an illuminating study of the role of thanksgiving in bridging the upward movement from prayer to worship.

The first occurrence of the search for “thanksgiving” took us to 30:4. Ascending Mortals where as Havona Pilgrims our first act of our Havona career will be to thank our transport seconaphim and prepare our personal message of thanksgiving and adoration to Christ Michael for making our wondrous career possible.

The second citation brought us into the realm of the law of Dalamatia, then and there called the “Father’s Way”. These seven commandments of negative instruction (Thou shalt nots), were employed, one for each day of the week as salutations and mealtime thanksgiving.

Early in the evolution of religion the two forms of sacrifice are encountered embodying the concepts of thanksgiving and redemption. These early forms of sacrifice should not be mistaken for true worship.

In paper 100, Religion in Human Experience we encounter again the integral role of the prayer, thanksgiving, and worship as more healthful practices of spiritual meditation as opposed to the potentially dangerous psychic states, which favor the mystic status.

The crux of our study is to be found in the formal statement of Jesus’ teaching at Jotopata in answer to Nathaniel’s question concerning prayer, thanksgiving and worship.

This sixteen point statement, provides us with definitive clarification of the laws and instructions concerning our practices around prayer, thanksgiving and worship.

See also