Nov

22

Happy Thanksgiving!!

November 22, 2007 |

Every Thanksgiving growing up, I was responsible for saying grace at Thanksgiving dinner.  I would sit and really reflect on what to say because I wanted it to be perfect.  For some reason, we’ve gotten away from this little tradition (I really don’t know why or when.)

In any case, I still like to reflect on what I would say if I were to be called upon to say a Thanksgiving prayer. 

This year, it’s thus . . .

“Thank you, Lord, for so many wonderful blessings this past year.

Thank you for our faith, our health, our freedom, our security.  Thank you for allowing us to grow closer as a family and to grow closer to you as a family.  Thank you for our successes and challenges.  Thank you that we have grown spiritually, physically, emotionally and intellectually.  Thank you for the places we have seen and the people we have met.

Thank you for the love of our parents and the love we get to witness in them as grandparents.  Thank you for our home and the food on our table every night.

Thank you for our parish and the men and women who make up the Church.  Thank you for our troops who put themselves into harm’s way for us and their families who wait back home.  Thank you for the heroic sacrifice of those who have died so we can be free and especially bless their families on this holiday.

Thank you for our jobs and the work you give us to do.

Thank you for our friends and extended family and the times we have shared.

Thank you for the times when we have laughed, cried, celebrated, mourned, and experienced the myriad of emotions that prove we are truly alive in you.

Thank you that we have grown this year.  Closer together - closer to you - closer to figuring out who we are and why we are here.

Thank you for making me a husband and a father - thank you for making me realize that there is no more important vocation than these.  Thank you for the love I am able to give and to receive.

And, dear Lord, please bless those who are struggling today to think of things for which to be thankful.  Those who are hungry, alone, depressed, homeless, anxious, in mourning, sick, suffering.  Please be with them today and may they come to you to be comforted and protected against the storms of their life.  May they find one thing today to be thankful for and may they build on the foundation of whatever that one thing may be.

Lord, you have blessed us without measure.  You are deserving of all of our love.  You are deserving of all of our thanks.

So, on this day, we especially show our gratitude to you and praise you, through Christ our Lord, Amen.”

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!


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