Explore the invigorating vision of Edward Hays through a Lenten e-course which begins February 17th.

Valentines ecards are now ready for you!   Also, we have made it easier for you to search for your favorite wordless ecards by adding captions.

We need nothing more urgently than the superfluous, writes Br. David in the final section of "Thomas Merton:  Now at the Crack of Dawn."

Your gift to our 501(c)(3) nonprofit brings free website services - an oasis in cyberspace - to millions of visitors each year. Please donate!

Chocolate championed by Quakers; skyscrapers built in the 16th century; Cystic Fibrosis treated by surfing:  Look for unexpected connections in January's Gratefulnews.

Refresh your relationship with time:  Our "Living the Hours" e-retreat is now available on demand.

Enjoy a sneak preview of video footage from "Spiritual Practices for Everyday Living," a 2009 retreat given by Br. David Steindl-Rast in Adelaide, Australia (more segments soon).

Odd to combine grief and gratefulness in a retreat session, thought Susan Mazrolle, hardly expecting that on the very night the retreat ended, her heart would face its greatest challenge.

Light a Candle for earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Join the InterSpiritual Wisdom e-course that begins January 31st!

Our friend Annette Cantor has graciously donated the healing gift of her voice in this water blessing song (mp3; 8 MB), now added to our Caring for Earth topic.

Imagine a classroom in which the teacher believes that his job is to teach empathy, showing how precious life is.  (Scroll down to Children Full of Life in our "Children and Elders" links.)

January's newsletter suggests that our quest for renewal might involve some improbable connections.

As we enter 2010, let us be the first to bring you glad tidings, through Mr. Moses.

Send a New Year's ecard!

If you have ever tried to sift out what is essential in life, you will appreciate Part II of "Thomas Merton: Now at the Crack of Dawn."

 Let this decade go on a grateful note:  Scroll down to the Charter of Compassion and All You Need Is Love (sung by musicians from 156 countries!) under "Links" on this page.

  From a refugee building his community's first high school to a professional violinist playing for homeless audiences, December's Gratefulnews is sure to brighten your holidays.

  Stephen Hough's blog considers the sentiments in "A Good Day" and wonders whether our culture tends to bury everything tender with our ingrained habit of scoffing.

Fra Giovanni Giocondo's Christmas Eve letter has endured for centuries, reminding us that there's "radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see."

Need holiday gift ideas?  Visit our Gift Shop, give a contribution in a loved one's honor, or use our Amazon.com portal.

December's newsletter asks, "Do you have a rose that blooms in the dead of winter?"

In honor of Thomas Merton at the 41st anniversary of his death on December 10th, we offer the first in a three-part series:  "Now at the Crack of Dawn."

How moved we are by the online tributes left by people like you who support our work!

Helen Siegl's mosaic of Advent images conveys peace and corresponds with ecards in our seasonal collection.

How do people make "a different kind of holiday"?  Did the fall of the Berlin Wall "just happen" to be peaceful?  Can theater help defeat fundamentalism?  Explore this month's Gratefulnews....

"In the Press":  Br. David Steindl-Rast's contemplative videos and April 2010 plenary presentation for "Gratefulness: The Heart of Spiritual Care."

Imagine giving thanks for four solid days!

At this season, "may we gracefully rise to the occasion of our own falling," writes Br. David in this Thanksgiving Song.

Our Sister Site, Spirituality and Practice, is offering two new 40-day e-courses based on the writings of Joyce Rupp and Thich Nhat Hanh.

Need a lift?  Check out October's Gratefulnews:  a hunger to learn; a unique approach to theft; a leaping wolf; a zero-waste strategy; and a son repeating his father's heroism.

The approach of Halloween – a holiday recognized by many cultures as a holy day and a remarkable "thinning" between worlds – evokes both playful and serious feelings.

Choose from many Halloween and other seasonal ecards as well as our wider selection.

Mary Lou Worster Anderson asked for "a used computer airlifted into my apartment by a giant stork," and look what happened.

The world overflows with creative intentions that become beneficial actions.  Our October newsletter gives you some examples.

One woman's quest for peace, recorded on video, takes her around the world bringing peace and understanding through the arts.  (Scroll down to "Links" on this page.)

Flood-relief efforts in the Philippines, the eco-rebuilding of Greensburg, great hardship turned into kinship, and both trash and treasure make up this month's Gratefulnews.

Our Simple Living resources now include a video by Joanna Macy about Gratitude as a Revolutionary Act.  (Scroll down to "Offsite Links.")

  A perennial dilemma:  How can anyone *say* how to get beyond language?

Ani Pema Chödrön brings practical compassion into focus through her sparkling example and writings.

Our seasonal ecards include blessings for Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and the autumn and spring equinox.

Ever feel like your gratefulness engine is sputtering?

Join us for Living the Hours, a six-week online retreat marking nuances of dawn, day, dusk, and dark with prayer.  

September's newsletter offers a glimpse of our unity of spirit as a worldwide community practicing grateful living.

A Network for Grateful Living is on Facebook...become a fan!

Gratefulnews goes from far reaches of the Milky Way to a single molecule's stunning image.

Send an ecard blessing for the month-long Islamic observance of Ramadan.

This documentary film introduces you to the life of Br. David Steindl-Rast through interview footage and rare archival photos.

Did you know that we offer volunteer opportunities?

Thank you for your lighting the world with your candles, now well over 8,000,000!

Refresh your spirits with our August newsletter.

 "Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams."  Can you name the source of this memorable quote?  If so, you will know this month's Gift Person.

If it is hard to imagine benefiting from jellyfish, sledding down barn-size drifts of dust, or "daylighting" a stream, read about this and more in Gratefulnews.

It is a blessing when someone can help you feel your own way through what only your heart can process.  Paul Bennett's Loving Grief and Elaine Mansfield's reflections offer this blessing.

Joyce Holmes McAllister's poem reminds us that in tough times, our ancestors' voices – and the memory of their actions, speaking louder than words – bring us wisdom.

Isn't the practice of grateful living about shifting our respective and ultimately our collective worldviews and then our world visions? 

In the "almost limitless number of good companions found along the way," a few stand out, and Thomas Berry was one of them.

What do a writer in Kyoto, gardens in Russia, a Muslim feminist in West Virginia, a promise in the Maldives, and Wynton Marsalis on the hardcourt have in common?  Gratefulnews!

Every human being can experience true belonging, Br. David affirms in this interview on the "Way of Love."

Blessed Mother Teresa – esteemed not only for her service to the unwanted, the homeless, and the dying but also for her perseverance amidst inner torment – is this month's Gift Person.

You benefit from a fabulous four-billion-year-old legacy bequeathed by the earth.  How does a grateful response to this gift look?  Explore Caring for the Earth and the new "Home Project" video (scroll down to "Links").

 Br. David writes about a vision for the future.

June's newsletter looks at one of the paradoxes of gratefulness:  It comes to us as pure gift and even so it must be cultivated.

Alice Walker writes, "It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all."  Enjoy our Father's Day (and Solstice and Graduation!) ecards. 

This month's Gratefulnews celebrates the people working to restore Earth's well-being through art, creative housing initiatives, education, poetry, shared gardens, and much more.

Honor your favorite graduate with an e-card. 

Br. David Steindl-Rast and Fr. Cyprian Consiglio will offer a retreat – "Spirit, Soul, Mind and Body: The Universal Call to Contemplation" – in Boulder, CO, June 27-28, 2009. 

"Practicing Spirituality with Quakers," a 40-day e-course that starts June 1st, looks at how to live simply and create a more just world (scroll down to "Links").

Explore the dimensions of grateful living through this new audio download of radio host Michael Stone in conversation with Br. David Steindl-Rast.

Have you ever felt so stressed out that conjuring feelings of gratitude seemed ridiculous, perhaps even a little infuriating?  Michele Wahlder writes about common obstacles to gratefulness.

Richard Schiffman's study in perspective, "Watching the Birdwatcher," captures the space between moments by the reverse feat of not trying to grasp it. 

Br. David talks about peak experiences and more on this new video clip from "The Monk and the Rabbi."

Br. David's May-June Australia tour includes Brisbane, Rockhampton, Mackay, Maitland/Newcastle, Sydney, Adelaide, Alice Springs, and Perth.

May's newsletter gives us an opportunity once again to thank you for your generous support as we bring practices of grateful living to people around the world.

This month's Gratefulnews comes in all varieties: a lost Aboriginal language revived, music notation made accessible, friendship enhancing health, and hardhats going green.

Send a Mother's Day ecard to someone nurturing in your life or (in keeping with the day's origins) someone who works for peace.  If your mother has passed on, light a candle in her memory.

Maria DeCarvalho writes about a fortune cookie and a "secret decoder ring" that revealed its hidden truth.

Please let your friends in far-away places know that A Good Day can now be viewed with multilingual captions (click up-arrow on video screen). 

Send an Earth Day ecard, and gather fresh inspiration through our Caring for the Earth and Simple Living topics.

What does it take to entrust ourselves to a "fundamental sense of belonging to the universe"?

April's newsletter observes that we never know where a day may lead us.

"When we accept the pain and intensity that comes to us, what could have been unbearable opens us into new dimensions," write Felicia Norton and Charles Smith in this second excerpt from An Emerald Earth.

Light a Candle for the people of the earthquake-ravaged Abruzzo region of Italy.

Isn't a love that "none can part" what we long for most?  How rare to be given – through this poem by George Herbert – the words to articulate it and the strength that makes it possible.

Send joy to your loved ones with Passover and Easter e-cards. For your convenience, you can schedule cards in advance.

When we urgently need to be called back to the foundation of our life, our dreams often help.

The things we tend to overlook can be our greatest sources of treasure, as this month's Gratefulnews shows.

Thanks to generously donated artwork by Carol Giantonio, we now have in our Gift Shop a dynamic, 160-page gratitude journal awaiting your creative inspiration.

We need not only a new ethic for developed nations; we need an ethic that can be shared by traditional cultures. 

Did you ever think of "salvation" as meaning "healing"?  It derives from the same root as "salve", writes Br. David.

Our March newsletter asks where we will find the strength for the "stride of soul" life requires.

Now and then we get asked for a little history of our work.

Feb 9,  Birthday of Alice Walker (b. 1944) — African-American writer; winner of 1983 Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple. Through this book and the film adapted from it, we are brought starkly into a world of race, class, and gender inequities calling for reconciliation. more »

Jan 15 - Feb 23,  A Winter Feast for the Soul — This annual forty-day worldwide period of spiritual practice brings people of all faiths together in prayer and meditation for personal and planetary peace. more »

Jan 30 - Apr 3,  A Season for Nonviolence — A grassroots movement that brings to life the spirit and practice of nonviolence as a powerful means to heal, transform and empower individuals and communities. more »

Feb 10,  Birthday of Leontyne Price (b. 1927) — African-American opera singer and concert artist. Recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom (1965) and Kennedy Center Honors (1980), Price has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards for her recordings.

Feb 11,  Birthday of Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) — American inventor who gave us more than a thousand inventions, including the electric light, phonograph, microphone, camera, silent and talking pictures, and other devices we so often take for granted. more »

Feb 12,  Birthday of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) — Sixteenth U.S. President, who led the Union during the Civil War and freed slaves by signing the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln wrote, "I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend."

Feb 14,  St. Valentine's Day — Obscure legends about this day abound. Originating in the Roman Feast of Lupercalia, it was later adopted by Christians in memory of St. Valentine. The western custom of lovers and friends exchanging "valentines" began in the 1800s. more »

Feb 14 - Feb 28,  Chinese New Year — Also known as Lunar New Year, this festival celebrates the 2010 Year of the Tiger, 4708 in the Chinese calendar. Traditional mythical dragons lead colorful processions; and family reunions honor the ancestors, weaving together past and present. more »

Feb 15,  Birthday of Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) — American Quaker and Unitarian-Universalist leader of the women's suffrage movement; advocate for women's rights to property and earnings; arrested in 1872 for voting. One hundred years after her birth, the 19th Amendment brought her dream to fruition.

Feb 15,  Candlelight Vigil for Peace — On the anniversary of the day in 2003 when more than 15 million people around the world spoke up for peace, we again unite for this supremely important purpose. This emerging superpower for peace is even now bringing about a grateful world. more »

namastei! maravillosos ya que te da lugar a orar y sentir la magia de estar saane ando los problemas individuales a nivel planetario tambien (namaste! wonderful and leads you to pray and feel the magic of remediating problems with individuals and on a global level also).  — elisas, argentina e rios

I love the candles. I needed a time each day to meditate on my illness and others who suffer. It is really special and beautifully done. You somehow put healing in virtual reality.  — mh, san diego area

Très inspirant. Un apaisement immediate (Very inspiring. An immediate relief) I never found a site where the ambiance is like a church or a temple.  — STVM, Morocco

This is the most peaceful, well done site that I know of!! I love u all for giving me this for my quiet space, and words of wisdom!!  — Susie Lyn Tucker, Missouri

I love this site. Very nice what you are doing and blessings! GOD love you!  — Amaryllis, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles

Estoy muy agradecida por la oportunidad de ser parte de Gratefulness.org. Me siento muy conectada con todos Uds. Me dan ánimo e inspiración (I am very grateful for the opportunity to be part of Gratefulness.org. I feel very connected with all of you. You give me courage and inspiration).  — Patricia, Arequipa, Peru

I treasure each feature, topic and practice this website offers. Special thanks to the ANG*L team for the Home Page link to the truly wonderful videos "CHILDREN FULL OF LIFE."  — Juliana, Austria

Beautiful and inspiring. A nice oasis in the middle of a hectic day!!! Thanks.  — JAQ, Elkhart, Indiana

Mi è piaciuto molto soprattutto sapere che altri come te in tutto il mondo possono accendere una candela (I like this a lot especially since others all over the world can light a candle, too)!  — moki, italia

This site is like sunlight; its rays touching your soul here and there in ways that are personal, and yet for all people. Blessings-  — GMAC, Nottingham, PA

WE ALL ARE ONE WORLD. Thank you for this web site putting these words into an every day practice.  — PB, Switzerland

Vielen Dank für diese wundervolle Seite. Sie gibt Kraft und zeigt man ist nicht allein mit seinen Sorgen, Wünschen und Nöten (Thank you for this wonderful site. It gives strength and shows you are not alone with your concerns, desires and needs).  — A.S., Germany

What a lovely place to visit! And we really are a global village. And people of peace and light sharing their words is another reason to be grateful.  — Donna, Cleveland Ohio USA

I'm really grateful for this site which allows me to express my thoughts about Shoah and to feel the spiritual love of other brothers and sisters around the world.  — Uccio Saverino, MD, Sicily

Спасибо,что создали мир для наших душ в мире интернета (Thank you for having created a world for our souls on the world-wide web).  — Elena, Moscow, Russia

it is a blessed way of getting the world together as one; let us all pray for peace and love in the jungle war are living in.  — fatiha, morocco

First time to came across with this site. What a wonderful site. Gives relief and inner peace. Thank u so much.  — ysi, philippines

After nearly 17yrs. myself on the streets, I am finally home. How awesome and peaceful!  — Deborah "Dusty" Debandi, Greensboro, N.C.

...you and your site have empowered me to be grateful in living my life empowered by grace everpresent.  — Jim Hinshaw, Atlanta, GA

Best site ever!!! Thank you and God bless you.  — Carlo, Denmark