Praise God for good and for bad

On Ash Wednesday, Bob Faricy SJ, well-known US theologian and spiritual writer, was guest lecturer at the Milltown Institute. His topic was ‘Giving Thanks and Praise’; he told those present that praising and thanking God for everything in their lives was a most powerful form of prayer. “Don’t just praise God for what’s good in your life, praise him for what’s wrong too – no matter how difficult that is. Just try it because it works. God can turn all things to the good, and He will.” Fr Faricy remarked that this had been his experience when as a teenager he had gone badlyoff the rails: ” Now, looking back over sixty years, I see that anything right in my life came from God drawing good out of what I did wrong”.