The Spiritual Practice of Gratitude
Notice all of the ways that God is blessing you each day. From moments of self-care to moments interacting with people who are helping you, good things are happening all the time that we simply miss because we are rushing to the next thing. Today, we challenge you to notice all of the good things happening or simply start and end the day with a prayer of thankfulness.
Why Gratitude?
United Thank Offering is a ministry of the Episcopal Church to encourage gratitude throughout the church and the world – but why? First and foremost, gratitude is a Christian virtue. It helps us love more deeply and be more present to the Holy Spirit at work in the world. Practicing gratitude can have a magnitude of effects on our daily personal, physical, and spiritual lives. There are extraordinary benefits to maintaining a daily practice of gratitude, and we hope to encourage and inspire a daily practice of gratitude for all.
Gratitude in Your Parish
While UTO is a personal spiritual discipline of gratitude, we do encourage you to invite others to join you in this important practice and bring UTO to your parish.
We believe the work of gratitude is meant for everyone, and we have created various liturgical and formation resources to help make gratitude more accessible. These resources are free for you to use as you please – on your own, with your kids, at your parish, or in your small group.
UTO Scholars Conference
Gratitude is a core principle of Christianity, and we believe that practicing gratitude can change your life. It is important that gratitude is explored and researched, especially in the academic realm. To this point, we created the UTO Scholars Conference – an academic yet accessible conference in which scholars research and speak on gratitude.