We thank you, O Lord: A Thanksgiving Day Grace

The impulse to thank God is never stronger than on this Thanksgiving Day. While we may be able to list our favorite foods for this US holiday celebration, we don’t always have the words to express our gratitude to God.

Here Aleteia offers the text of a Thanksgiving Day Grace composed by our own Fr. Peter Cameron, O.P. It is formatted for use by three leaders and a group (a family or other gathering), but may be adapted to your situation and may also be prayed on one’s own. Responses appear in bold-face type. If prayed before the Thanksgiving meal, gather everyone at the table to pray a few minutes before the meal is ready to serve.

Leader 1:

Let us pray. Most merciful Father, your gifts of love are countless and your goodness infinite. On this Thanksgiving Day we come before you with gratitude for your kindness: open our hearts to concern for others so that we may share your gifts of loving service with all your people. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

All: Amen.

The response (R) to each petition is We thank you, O Lord.

Leader 1:

This is a day to thank God for all his many blessings in our lives. With gratitude we now say: For the love of God, for faith, family, and friends: R.

Leader 2:

For joys, successes, achievements, and accomplishments: R.

Leader 3:

For health, safety, work, and rest: R.

Leader 1:

For struggles, sorrows, trials, and sufferings: R.

Leader 2:

For our jobs, for those who support us, for our education, and for the chance to serve: R.

Leader 3:

For our gifts, talents, and abilities, for honors, for strength and energy: R.

Leader 1:

For our homes, for food, warmth, and shelter, for all the things that have made us happy: R.

Leader 2:

For our hobbies and pets, for happy memories, for our favorite things, for leisure and relaxation: R.

Leader 3:

For our nation, for freedom and peace, for teachers, leaders, and those who give us good example: R.

Leader 1:

For the ability to say “I’m sorry,” for the grace of repentance, for the forgiveness of others, for the generosity of others: R.

Leader 2:

For good advice, for financial security, for the trust others put in us, for tenderness, understanding, and compassion: R.

Leader 3:

For kindness, goodness, joy, and laughter, for the times we have helped others or made them happy: R.

Leader 1:

For all the wonders of creation, for beauty, music, sports, and art, for new opportunities and second chances: R.

Leader 2:

For failures and rejection, for all the ways we have grown up and become better people: R.

Leader 3:

For renewed hope and fulfilled dreams, for the providence and protection of heaven: R.

Leader 1: For the gift of life: R.

Lord Jesus, we give you thanks, not only with the lips and heart, which often comes to little, but with the spirit, with which we speak to you, question you, love you, and recognize you. You are our all, and everything is in you. In you we live, and move, and have our being. You are our father, our brother, our all; and to those who love you, you have promised such things as no one has ever seen or thought of, no one ever enjoyed. Make the gift of these things to your humble faithful; you who are God, true and good, and there is no other besides you. You are the true God, the true Son of God, to whom be honor and glory and majesty in eternity and for all ages to come.

Gallican Formularies

From
Blessing Prayers, by Fr. Peter Cameron, O.P.
Available in print and eBooks at www.magnificat.com
© Magnificat – Used with permission.