Gratitude is an attitude that connects us to God because it acknowledges our dependence upon our Creator.

The story of “The Two Men and the Angry Bull” comes from Anthony de Mello’s book, Taking Flight. The story has much to teach us about gratitude.

With this post my approach to this blog will change. I am going deeper instead of wider. Rather than give you a new story with each blog post I will stay with a story through several posts reflecting on the different images and themes within the story. Stories always have several layers to them, it is my intent to point you to some of these layers to help you reflect on the wisdom that each story contains.

So, here’s the story of “Two Men and the Angry Bull.”

Once the Master was at prayer. The disciples came up to him and said, “Sir, teach us how to pray.” This is how he taught them…

Two men were once walking through a field when they saw an angry bull. Instantly they made for the nearest fence with the bull in hot pursuit. It soon became evident to them that they were not going to make it so one man shouted to the other, “We’ve had it! Nothing can save us. Say a prayer. Quick!”

The other shouted back, “I’ve never prayed in my life and I don’t have a prayer for this occasion.”

“Never mind. The bull is catching up with us. Any prayer will do.”

“Well, I’ll say the one I remember my father used to say before meals: For what we are about to receive, Lord, make us truly grateful.”

—

When do we choose to connect with God? Some of us are “hatching,” “matching,” and “dispatching” connectors(baptism or christening, wedding, and funeral). Others of us are “holiday” connectors (Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, Ramadan). Others of us, like the two men in our story, are “angry bull” connectors, reaching out for God when we are in trouble.

Now all of these times are important and appropriate times to connect to our Creator. I would like to suggest that for those of us who long for an ongoing connection to God an attitude of gratitude keeps our hearts tied to God all the time.

With just a little reflection each day we can find something for which to thank God for: another day to live, our health, our families, our friends, the food on our table, the clothes on our back, the roof over our head.

Have you ever thought about starting a “gratitude journal” in which you write one thing every day you are thankful for? I invite you to try it for a week and see if the quality of your connection to God improves. You can tell me what you’ve discovered with this little experiment by leaving a comment on this blog!

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”  Meister Eckhart