Generosity and gratitude : a philosophical psalm

153 Pages·2011·1.152 MB·English

by  Schlitt, Dale M

Generosity and Gratitude
PETER LANG 
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern 
Frankfurt (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Dale M. Schlitt

Generosity and Gratitude

PETER LANG 
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern 
Frankfurt (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schlitt, Dale M. 
Generosity and gratitude: a philosophical psalm / Dale M. Schlitt. 
p.  cm.  
Includes bibliographical references. 
1. Generosity—Religious aspects—Poetry.  2. Gratitude— 
Prayers and devotions.  I. Title. 
PS3619.C428G46    811’.6—dc22    2011008113 
ISBN 978‐1‐4331‐1516‐5 

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. 
 Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche  
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data is available  
on the Internet at http://dnb.d‐nb.de/. 

Author photo © D. Brunet, 2007 

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised  
Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education  
of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.,  
and are used by permission. All rights reserved. 

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability 
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity 
of the Council of Library Resources. 

© 2011 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York 
29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006  
www.peterlang.com 

All rights reserved. 
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm, 
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited. 

Printed in Germany
In gratitude to
the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate
and their Founder, Saint Eugene de Mazenod,
generous since 1816

Contents

Preface
ix

A Philosophical Psalm

Opening
3

Abundance
7

Generosity
43

Gratitude
77

Inclusion
113

Postscript
119

Preface

Generosity and gratitude are so fundamental to us in our daily lives that
we often do not realize they are what really makes the world go round.
We do of course take note of exceptional examples of generosity and re-
spond with a sincerely felt expression of gratitude. We look, for example,
at outstanding persons such as Teresa of Calcutta, Martin Luther King,
and Bill and Melinda Gates, each so generous in her or his or their own
ways. We realize that the world is a better place because of them. We
notice less clearly though that our own lives, whether in community, as
friends and couples, or individually would indeed be much the poorer
without daily acts of generosity and expressions of gratitude. “May I help
you” and “Thank you” mean so much to us. We do become more acutely
aware of the basic importance we attribute to generosity and gratitude
when we feel their absence. Few things hurt us more deeply than when
people are selfish or ungrateful. There is, in fact, a rather harsh and jar-
ring ancient saying to the effect that ungrateful people are already dead.
Over millennia of reflection we have considered generosity and
gratitude, whether more outstanding or more every-day, variously as
habits, virtues, and attitudes. We have usually spoken of them in terms
of persons, acts and results of these acts. So we thank generous persons
or groups of persons and admire what they do. We are grateful for their
contributions to worthy causes. We can indeed consider generosity and
gratitude from so many different angles since they are, in effect, privi-
leged ways in which we enter into widely varying, enriching and suppor-
tive relationships with one another. In their purer forms here espoused