Gratefulness

In a consumer-driven world where we’re told we need and deserve more, Susan Muto, executive director of the Epiphany Association, reminds us that gratefulness is a gift from God.

In Gratefulness: The Habit of a Grace-Filled Life, she reveals that grateful living is not another new fad but has been the way of saints and Christian mystics for centuries. 

Many popular secular books today explore how embracing gratitude can lead to a happier, healthier life. In contrast, renowned author, speaker, and teacher Susan Muto approaches gratitude from a uniquely Catholic perspective.

In this insightful, inspiring book, she explores how life-changing a spirit of gratefulness can be by using both personal and well-known examples of the struggles and rewards of grateful living.  Muto and companions such as Julian of Norwich, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Henri J. M. Nouwen, and Dorothy Day highlight the power of gratitude as a grace from God and walk with us as we learn to practice thankfulness.

We start the journey toward gratefulness by embracing gratitude in all circumstances and end it by thankfully accepting the missions God entrusts to each of us. Along the way, we begin to accept God’s grace by understanding

the benefits of positivity and dangers of negativity,the redemptive power of prayer, andthe lasting fruits of thankfulness.

A spirituality of gratitude reminds us that, even without the possessions, luxuries, or leisure time society claims are the most important things in life, God still loves, cares, and knows what’s best for us. Muto also provides practical tools that help us embrace this grace in our lives.

 

Features & Benefits

Provides a Catholic approach to the topic of gratitude that has received much attention recently in books such as Gratitude by Oliver Sacks, The Gratitude Diaries by Janice Kaplan, and The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.Susan Muto has written or coauthored more than forty books.

Susan Muto, executive director of the Epiphany Association, is a renowned speaker, author, teacher, and dean of the Epiphany Academy of Formative Spirituality. Muto earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in English literature from the University of Pittsburgh, where she specialized in the work of post-Reformation spiritual writers. Beginning in 1966, she served in administrative positions at the Institute of Formative Spirituality at Duquesne University and taught as a full professor in its programs, edited its journals, and served as its director from 1981 to 1988. An expert in literature and spirituality, she continues to teach courses on an adjunct basis at a number of schools, seminaries, and centers of higher learning. Muto is a frequent contributor to scholarly and popular journals such as Mount Carmel and Spiritual Life Magazine, and served as editor of Epiphany’s online journals and courses, including Growing in, with, and through Christ. She is the author of more than thirty books, among them Twelve Little Ways to Transform Your Heart, Table of Plenty, Then God Said, and Virtues: Your Christian Legacy. She is the coauthor—with Rev. Adrian van Kaam, C.S.Sp. (1920-2007)—of more than forty books, including Commitment: Key to Christian Maturity, and The Power of Appreciation. Muto lectures and leads conferences, seminars, workshops, and institutes nationally and internationally. She has received many distinctions for her work, including a doctor of humanities degree from King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She was one of four Catholic writers to be honored in 2009 with a lifetime achievement award by the Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Muto also is the recipient of the 2014 Aggiornamento Award presented of the Catholic Library Association. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“We look for happiness in all the wrong places. Susan Muto shows that it’s to be found in a grateful heart. Gratitude is the antidote to negativity. It’s the key to understanding reality—the only key that fits. Thanks to Susan Muto for giving us this very simple, very practical, very needed book.”
Mike Aquilina
Author of A History of the Church in 100 Objects

“Susan Muto’s book gently offers insights and practical guidance on living a grateful life through the mountain tops, valleys, and flatlands of life's journey, along with distinctive counsel from ‘a great cloud of witnesses’ spanning the ages of Christian history. Come and read and join a company of grateful souls.”
Rebecca S. Letterman
Associate Professor of Spiritual Formation
Northeastern Seminary

“Susan Muto’s reflections on the challenges of the Christian life together with insights gleaned from the saints help the reader understand the practical aspects of a life of holiness. Gratefulness is a blessing for all of us who seek to follow Christ in the midst of our everyday lives.”

Rev. Gregory Jensen

Chaplain at University of Wisconsin–Madison

“In this reflective work on gratitude, renowned spiritual author Susan Muto offers God’s people a critical word for today. She provides a vibrant explication on fulfilling the apostolic command to ‘give thanks in all circumstances.’ Even as much of the world sinks into the darkness of depreciation and offense, Muto shines the joyful light of Christ upon the path of those yearning for something more than seeing only what is wrong with life.”
Stephen L. Martyn
Asbury Theological Seminary