October 21, 2026

Return Thanks Often

He does not ask much of us, merely a thought of Him from time to time, a little act of adoration, sometimes to ask for His grace, sometimes to offer Him your sufferings, at other times to return Him thanks for the favours He has given you, and is giving you, in the midst of your troubles, to console yourself with Him the oftenest you can.

Nicolas Herman spent years as a soldier and then a footman before entering a Carmelite monastery in Paris as a lay brother, where he spent most of his life working in the kitchen among pots and pans. His letters, written late in life to a fellow religious, were gathered after his death into The Practice of the Presence of God. He had a bad leg and a clumsy manner, yet he insisted that even in the clatter of the kitchen and the ache of his body there was reason to give thanks. His gratitude was not reserved for easy days; he thanked God in the middle of his troubles, which is why this line still unsettles comfortable notions of when thanksgiving belongs.