I love Thanksgiving for many reasons. First of all, it revolves around a meal; what’s not to like? The date and the entrée are pretty well set – the fourth Thursday in November since President Lincoln decreed it in 1863, and turkey because its rumored that’s what the Pilgrims ate at their first Thanksgiving back in 1621.
So every year I knock myself out planning (and executing) a menu that (hopefully) is predictable but not boring, traditional but fresh. I’m happy to do it. But inevitably I find myself finally sitting down to the meal and realizing that I’m speechless – with gratitude and maybe a little fatigue. Like the Pilgrims, I want to give thanks in a prayer. But unless I’ve planned ahead (hard to do when I’m cooking and preparing usually up to the last minute), I don’t know what to say. At least, that was the case up to a couple years ago. First, my friend Lora gave me a prayer card from her church that hit close to home with me, and then I found another prayer card from I-don’t-know-where that also touched on important blessings for me. So, I put the two prayers together, and now I do have words that express everything I want to say at my Thanksgiving table. Just in case you, too, are searching for words to say, here is my prayer:
Loving God, Heavenly Father, today we gather at our home table, grateful for our many blessings – our life, the beauty of nature, and our ability to love.
We thank you for our family and friends. We unite in giving You thanks for all the home tables in our lives. We pray for those who are lonely.
We bow our heads to pray Your blessings over our food and our families. We thank you for our health and strength, as we pray for those who are ill. We thank you for this bountiful meal as we pray for those who are hungry.
May we be grateful for the shelters in our lives, the shelter of home, family, and of friends. We pray for those with no home or shelter.
As we pause to thank You for this home, we remember those who are far away from their “home” table, those who serve our country and work for peace. We thank you for our freedom as Americans, as we pray for those who are oppressed.
Bless those who have left our earthly home, may they be at your eternal table of love and life, in heaven forever. We miss them but remember them with love; may their memory be eternal.
May the light of hope be at the door of all our hearts.
In Jesus’s name, we pray. Amen.
Happy Thanksgiving, and God bless us, everyone!
(Special thanks to American Martyrs Catholic Community in Manhattan Beach who created Lora’s table card.)
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