Thanksgiving Day

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Father in Heaven, Creator of all and source of all goodness and love, please look kindly upon us and receive our heartfelt gratitude in this time of giving thanks.

Thank you for all the graces and blessings. You have bestowed upon us, spiritual and temporal: our faith and religious heritage. Our food and shelter, our health, the love we have for one another, our family and friends.

Dear Father, in Your infinite generosity, please grant us continued graces and blessing throughout the coming year. This we ask in the Name of Jesus, Your Son and our Brother. Amen.


Happy Thanksgiving, friends.


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Asking for God's Blessing

It seems appropriate to discuss on Sunday the prayer that we will say around our Thanksgiving buffet on Thursday. While we normally say the traditional Catholic table blessing in our home before meals, we often say a different prayer before Thanksgiving.

We don't all take turns giving thanks for our blessings out loud as the teenagers would mutiny, but our prayer expresses the feelings of all present. We will ask specifically for blessings on those family members who are ill, for the souls who go before us, and we will ask special blessings for all of the soldiers.

We do have a blessing jar, in which each person will write on paper and place their blessings, and when we have our Thanksgiving fire that night, we will burn the papers.

O Gracious God, we give you thanks for your overflowing generosity to us. Thank you for the blessings of the food we eat and especially for this feast today. Thank you for our home and family and friends, especially for the presence of those gathered here. Thank you for our health, our work and our play. Please send help to those who are hungry, alone, sick and suffering war and violence. Open our hearts to your love. We ask your blessing through Christ your son. Amen.

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