November 17, 2006

Click here to listen to Fr. Schlegel's Thanksgiving Message

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

At this end-point of November, our thoughts turn to preparation for our annual Thanksgiving celebration with family and friends.

I think we need Thanksgiving this year! We need time to slow down, reflect and count our blessings. We need time to distance ourselves and to catch our breath after all the happenings of the past months.

There is much to be grateful for this November. Each of you in, your own setting, is aware of the gifts and blessings you have in family and friends, neighbors and co-workers.

The Creighton family has much to be grateful for this November: a healthy enrollment; a gifted student community; a creative, productive and generous faculty and staff; nationally recognized academic programs; a generosity of service to the Omaha community; our loyal and supportive alumni; a campaign with momentum; and a fiscal, strategic and campus master plan to guide us in the years to come.

We are thankful for this country, with its beauty and bounty, which allows us so many opportunities and protections. Yet, we are aware of the intractable war in Iraq and the pain and disruption this war causes many of our families and friends; aware, too, that national security is ever fragile. We also acknowledge the instability in the Middle East, the suffering in Darfur, and the plight of the world’s refugees.  Closer to home, we have to adjust to a new alignment of congressional power, as well as deal with a temperamental economy.

So we pray that our political, church, and corporate leadership be endowed with wisdom and wise counsel in the decisions before them. In these fragile times we pray for peace, stability, and goodwill among peoples.

As George Washington wrote in his first Presidential Proclamation of Thanksgiving:

“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”

Let that be our prayer – as individual and as community – this Thanksgiving season.

You, your family and friends are in my prayers and thoughts during this annual celebration of gratitude.

John P. Schlegel, S.J.
President