Sunday November 18, 2007

CAN’T SLEEP?

TRY COUNTING

YOUR BLESSINGS!!

Give Thanks to God

With a Grateful Heart

For the Many Blessings

Of Life, -

Especially for Our Family,

Friends & Celebrations

Around the Table.

HAPPY

THANKSGIVING

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanksgiving Mass at

St. Patrick’s at 8AM

“FATHER WE THANK THEE”

Across the United States the fourth Thursday of November is a day of celebration. As you know, the Pilgrims who settled in New England (Massachusetts) celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621. The Pilgrims had, with the help of Native Americans (Pawtuxet Indians), learned to overcome harsh winters and to plant corn and other native crops. With the timely help from the Native Americans they were able to surmount the obstacles of the terrain and they invited the Natives to celebrate the bountiful harvest and blessings. The meal prepared included corn, wild game, turkey, seafood, vegetables, berries and fruit.

“National Thanksgiving Proclamations proclaim thanks for God’s providence in the events of the nation and, as President Washington explained in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, “for the many signal favors of Almighty God” in the lives of the people. As congress recognized the importance of Thanksgiving observance, President George Washington issued a national Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789. He wrote, "Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country...for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed...and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually...To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best."

President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a Federal holiday as a "prayerful day of Thanksgiving" on the last Thursday in November. Since then every U.S. President has always made an official Thanksgiving Proclamation on behalf of the nation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the date for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941).” (http://en.Wikipedia.org)

Grenville Kleiser (writer 1868-1953) has a short poem that highlights some of the reasons to give thanks.

Father, We Thank Thee

Father, we thank Thee:

For peace within our favored land,

For plenty from Thy bounteous hand,

For means to give to those in need,

For grace to help in thought and deed,

For faith to walk, our hands in Thine,

For truth to know Thy law divine’

For strength to work with voice and pen’

For love to serve our fellow men,

For light the goal ahead to see,

For life to use alone for Thee,

Father, we thank Thee.

GRENVILLE KLEISER

It is ever so vital that we, in the twenty-first century, should not lose sight of the reason that we celebrate this Thanksgiving Holiday. The nation is straying away from its Godly roots and Godly purpose. Let us embrace our God & ‘Give Thanks For All Our Blessings With Grateful Hearts.’