Giving thanks to God for His many blessings is an American tradition. From the earliest celebration at the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving to President George Washington’s proclamation of “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer” to the 21st century, Americans have taken time to celebrate and give thanks.
Thanksgiving Day was first established by President Washington on Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789. Beginning in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln further encouraged Americans to recognize the last Thursday of November as “a day of Thanksgiving.” In 1870 Congress declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, and in 1941 it fixed the celebration on the fourth Thursday in November.
As Catholics, we know that prayer is a way of lifting our hearts, minds and souls to God. Prayer is “the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2590, quoting St. John Damascene). Prayer connects us with our Creator, deepening our “vital and personal relationship with the living and true God” (CCC 2558). We pray whenever we have something to be thankful to God for – not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day.
This Thanksgiving Day, make time to pray as you gather around the table with family and friends. Use the following selection of prayers, or pray a prayer of your own!
— Catholic News Herald
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.
O, heavenly Father: We thank thee for food and remember the hungry. We thank thee for health and remember the sick. We thank thee for friends and remember the friendless. We thank thee for freedom and remember the enslaved. May these remembrances stir us to service, that thy gifts to us may be used for others. Amen.
— Abigail van Buren
This Thanksgiving, let those of us who have much and those who have little gather at the welcoming table of the Lord. At this blessed feast, may rich and poor alike remember that we are called to serve one another and to walk together in God’s gracious world. With thankful hearts, we praise our God who like a loving parent denies us no good thing.
— “Songs of Our Hearts, Meditations of Our Souls: Prayers for Black Catholics,” edited by Cecilia A. Moore, C. Vanessa White, and Paul M. Marshall
O God, when I have food, help me to remember the hungry;
When I have work, help me to remember the jobless;
When I have a home, help me to remember those who have no home at all;
When I am without pain, help me to remember those who suffer,
And remembering, help me to destroy my complacency,
Bestir my compassion, and be concerned enough to help,
By word and deed, those who cry out for what we take for granted.
— Author Unknown. Courtesy of JesuitResource.org at Xavier University
For flowers that bloom about our feet, Father, we thank Thee.
For tender grass so fresh, so sweet, Father, we thank Thee.
For the song of bird and hum of bee, for all things fair we hear or see, Father in heaven, we thank Thee.
For blue of stream and blue of sky, Father, we thank Thee.
For pleasant shade of branches high, Father, we thank Thee.
For fragrant air and cooling breeze, for beauty of the blooming trees, Father in heaven, we thank Thee.
For this new morning with its light, Father, we thank Thee.
For rest and shelter of the night, Father, we thank Thee.
For health and food, for love and friends, for everything Thy goodness sends, Father in heaven, we thank Thee.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Lord, as we bow our heads to pray, we give thanks to You, for this Thanksgiving Day.
Father, we thank you for our families, friends, and for all the blessings, both big and small, that you dish out on us each day.
God, we give thanks to you for this food and for the hands that have cooked it. Lord, we ask for your blessings upon this meal: that it will nourish our bodies and refresh our souls.
Also we give thanks to you for this wonderful time together, and for each one present here on this day.
Father we ask you, dear Lord, let each one of us feel your love, comfort, and presence in our lives today and every day.
Let us not forget those who can’t be here with us today. For we give thanks to you for them, too. We miss our loved ones, Lord, but we are thankful for all the good times that we shared with them.
Lord, we know that this life is not all there is; that the best part is yet to come if we live for you. So, help us each day to live our lives in ways that honor and please you. Also, we’ll not forget to give you all the praise and glory.
In the name of Jesus we pray.
Amen.
— Ethel Faye Grzanich
Lord of all the blessings you have bestowed, source of all life, giver of all grace:
We thank you for the gift of life: for the breath that keeps us alive, the food of this earth that sustains life, for the love of family and friends without which there would be no life.
Father, we thank you for the mystery of creation: for the beauty that the eye can see, the melody that the ear may hear, also for the unknown that we cannot behold filling the universe with wonder, for the reaches of space that draws us beyond the definitions of our selves.
We thank you for setting us in communities: for families who foster our becoming, the friends who love us by choice, for companions at work, who share our burdens and daily responsibilities, also for the strangers who welcome us into their hearts, for people from other lands who call us to expand in understanding, the children who brighten our moments with delight, and for the unborn, who offer us hope for the future.
Lord, we thank you for this day: for life and an extra day to love, the opportunities and one more day to work for justice and peace, for the neighbors and one more person to love and by whom be loved, also for your grace and one more opportunity to experience your presence, for your promise: to be with us, to be our God, and to give salvation.
For these, and all blessings, we give you thanks, eternal, loving God, through Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
— catholicreadings.org