Consider ways to offer thanks
It's not the turkey or pumpkin pie, the NFL game on TV, or the afternoon nap that denotes the holiday.
It's thanksgiving, as in giving thanks. Everything else is like the stuffing, just filler.
So, how will you give thanks on Thanksgiving Day? Maybe it'll be a quick prayer, or a moment of silence, or a family ritual. The ways in which people give thanks vary.
If you're not sure what to do, or what to pray, or if you're looking for some additional resources, consider one of the following.
Whatever you do, find a way to be thankful because thanksgiving is more than a one-day holiday -- it's a way of life.
Rituals
Invite each family member to say aloud what he or she is thankful for. Or name one quality that you're thankful for in each person at the table.
Have each family member bring a canned food item and place them in a decorated box, for delivery to an organization that feeds the hungry.
Create a "blessing book." Each person writes one blessing in his or her life. Make it an annual event at Thanksgiving.
Write a significant quotation on a place card and have each person read his or her quotation before the meal begins.
Have lighted candles on the table for each family member who has died. Take turns recounting a special remembrance of the person.
Spend the day assisting a soup kitchen or other charity that provides food for those in need.
Prayers
If you're looking for a thanksgiving prayer to offer, consider one of the following:
"Give us this day our daily bread, O Father in heaven, and grant that we who are filled with good things from your open hand, may never close our hearts to the hungry, the homeless, and the poor." --The abbey of New Clairvaux, Vina, Calif.
"We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us. We return thanks to the rivers and streams, which supply us with water. We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases. We return thanks to the bushes and trees, which provide us with fruit. We return thanks to the wind, which, moving the air, has banished diseases. We return thanks to the moon and the stars, which have given us their light when the sun was gone. Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in whom is embodied all goodness, and who directs all things for the good of his children." --Abbreviated prayer of the Iroquois
"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." -- "Celebrating Faith: Year-round Activities For Catholic Families," by Mary Cronk Farrell
"O Lord, only you can count all the blessings of my life. I give you thanks for the gifts of memory and expectation, for pleasure that comforts and pain that brings needed change, for deep meanings revealed and for that which remains unknown because I may not be able to accept it, for variety and difference in my world, for melody and silence, for all my senses ... and above all for the overpowering feeling that somehow I am loved and accepted by You and that nothing can separate me from that Love. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen." --The Diocese of Syracuse
Sources: www.Godweb.org; www.allaboutprayer.org; www.geocities.com; www.americancatholic.org; www.familieswithpurpose.com; www.syracusediocese.org
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