In his biography of the remarkable First World War chaplain, Fr Willie Doyle, Alfred O’Rahilly tells the story of a Dublin Fusilier who happened to be home in Dublin on leave at the time of Fr Doyle’s death. Meeting a friend on St Stephen’s Green who told him the news of the chaplain’s death, he kept repeating incredulously;
‘He’s not dead. He couldn’t be killed.’

When at last he was shown a paper describing the padre’s death, the soldier spontaneously knelt down on the pavement and began to pray for the soul of Fr.Willie. When, to the crowd that had gathered round him, he recounted how; when he was lying wounded in an exposed position and expecting every moment to be killed by a shell, Fr Willie had crept out of his ‘safe’ dugout and carried him to a place of safety.

An attitude of gratitude involves developing a habit to being thankful for every aspect of our lives, and expressing that gratitude in an active way by word, deed and prayer.

c/f Martin Tierney, Sunday Thoughts.com, www.veritas.ie