Thanksgiving and Our Roots of Faith

11/22/2012

(Page 2 of 2)

weekly occurrence through the Mass, where the Eucharistic Sacrifice is our Great Thanksgiving. Special offerings, such as the Mass in St. Augustine in 1598 served to heighten our awareness of God's hand in our lives.

Today, Thanksgiving has become more of a day we begin by watching parades and then take in large amounts of food and football. According to some calculations, 46 million turkeys-around 550 million pounds-will be consumed during Thanksgiving this year. [Ironically, during early days of our nation Benjamin Franklin wanted to have the turkey declared our national bird.]

The American Automobile Association (AAA) estimates that some 38.4 million travelers will hit the road or the skies during the Thanksgiving holidays, with around 80 percent traveling by car.
Catholics are called to redeem the day as a time of thanksgiving by attending Mass and having prayer together as family and friends.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops published two prayers that Catholic families can use to capture the true heart of a day of thanksgiving. The shorter prayer follows and both can be downloaded at the USCCB publishing website at http://www.usccbpublishing.org.

"Lord, we thank you
for the goodness of our people
and for the spirit of justice
that fills this nation.
We thank you for the beauty and fullness of the
land and the challenge of the cities.
We thank you for our work and our rest,
for one another, and for our homes.
We thank you, Lord:
accept our thanksgiving on this day.
We pray and give thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord.
R/. Amen."

-----

Father Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online and a priest with the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter (http://usordinariate.org) established by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, through the Apostolic Constitution "Anglicanorum Coetibus."
- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Thanksgiving, giving thanks, pilgrims, Catholic

NEWSLETTERS »

Previous Page 1 | 2

Rate This Article

Was this helpful to you? Very Helpful Somewhat Helpful Not Helpful at All

Would you be interested in more articles like this? Yes, I am Interested No, I am not Interested

Rate Article

1 - 2 of 2 Comments

vance
5 months ago
One of the greatest lessons learned by the Pilgrims that has been largely ignored was the Pilgrims' Communist experiment that failed miserably and caused them hard times. The story we were told was the Indians rescued the pilgrims from dire straits. While this might be true, it was the 'Communist' system the Pilgrims lived under that caused the dire straits. When they abandoned Communism and reverted to Capitalism, their whole fortunes dramatically turned for the better and it was that 'Better' for which they gave thanks.
James Oliver
5 months ago
The puritans had only two "holidays" one being a Day of Fast when things were going poorly and the other a Day of Thanksgiving when things were going well. As Jesus indicated some situations can only be solved by prayer and fasting. I suggest we have a day where we get on our knees well away from the table.

Comments submitted must be civil, remain on-topic and not violate any laws including copyright. We reserve the right to delete any comments which are abusive, inappropriate or not constructive to the discussion.

Though we invite robust discussion, we reserve the right to not publish any comment which denigrates the human person, undermines marriage and the family, or advocates for positions which openly oppose the teaching of the Catholic Church.

This is a supervised forum and the Editors of Catholic Online retain the right to direct it.

We also reserve the right to block any commenter for repeated violations. Your email address is required to post, but it will not be published on the site.

We ask that you NOT post your comment more than once. Catholic Online is growing and our ability to review all comments sometimes results in a delay in their publication.

Name *

Email *

Comment *

Send me important information from Catholic Online and it's partners. See Sample

Post Comment