“Love every one with a strenuous love of charity, but have no friendship, except for those that communicate with you the things of virtue; and the more exquisite the virtues are, which shall be the matter of your communications, the more perfect shall your friendship also be. If this communication be in the sciences, the friendship is certainly very commendable; but still more so if it be in the moral virtues in prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. But should your reciprocal communication relate to charity, devotion, and Christian perfection, good God! How precious will this friendship be! It will be excellent, because it comes from God; excellent, because it tends to God; excellent, because it shall last eternally in God. Oh, how good it is to love on earth as they love in heaven; to learn to cherish each other in this world, as we shall do eternally in the next!” –St Francis de Sales

Thanksgiving arrives, two autumn days off work. Gratefulness, no stress, socializing and housework, a time of reflection upon the past and a prayer for the future. God is good and all pervading; allowing and permitting the wonders of life to absorb; shaping and forming us into creatures prepared for heaven, able to overcome the burdens we place upon our backs.