"The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.  Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice.  I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment.  It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint.  I can choose to be grateful when I am criticized, even when my heart still responds in bitterness.  I can choose to speak about goodness and beauty, even when my inner eye still looks for someone to accuse or something to call ugly.  I can choose to listen to the voices that forgive and to look at the faces that smile, even while I still hear words of revenge and see grimaces of hatred."  (Henri Nouwen)

How discipline are we in the area of gratitude? One of the steps in the Examination of Conscious at the end of the day is to recall what we are grateful for. So many things happen during the day that were blessings, which we at times take for granted. By recalling them at the end of the day helps us to realized how loving God was to us that day. A grateful heart is a heart in relationship with God, the source of all good things. A grateful heart opens us up to the needs of others, carrying for them as God cares for us.