Deacon Ward's Essentials and Expressions November 20, 2020
~Mater Dei Parish~
St. James the Greater
<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>
Thanksgiving is a wonderful time when we gather with family and
friends
to give thanks for those things that may have brought us joy or
peace or resolution.
These are all good things to be thankful for.
As a Catholic, Thanksgiving should have a deeper meaning for
each of us.
It is for us to realize that the things that have brought us
joy, peace or resolution are gifts from God.
All the good we receive
in our lifetime comes to us through His grace...
through the loving generosity of our heavenly Father.
So, when you pause and are prayerfully giving thanks this
Thanksgiving,
Bless the Lord, my soul; and do not forget all his gifts, Who
pardons all your sins, and heals all your ills,
Who redeems your life from the pit,
and crowns you with mercy and compassion,
Who fills your days with good things,
so your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Bless the Lord, my soul!....."
A bit of Christian history...
The national holiday (USA) of Thanksgiving also falls on the last Thursday of November. There is a special liturgy which may be used on this day.
The tradition of eating goose as part of the Martin's Day celebration was kept in Holland even after the Reformation. It was there that the Pilgrims who sailed to the New World in 1620 became familiar with this ancient harvest festival. When, after one year in America, they decided to celebrate a three days' thanksgiving in the autumn of 1621, they went in search of geese for their feast. We know that they also had deer (a present from the Indians), lobsters, oysters, and fish. But Edward Winslow, in his account of the feast, only mentions that "Governor Bradford sent four men on fowling that so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors." They actually did find some wild geese, and a number of wild turkeys and ducks as well.
The Pilgrim Fathers, therefore, in serving wild turkeys with the geese, inaugurated one of the most cherished American traditions: the turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day. They also drank, according to the ancient European tradition, the first wine of their wild-grape harvest. Pumpkin pie and cranberries were not part of the first Thanksgiving dinner in America, but were introduced many years afterward.
The second Thanksgiving Day in the New World was held by the Pilgrims two years later, on July 30, 1623. It was formally proclaimed by the governor as a day of prayer to thank God for their deliverance from drought and starvation, and for the safe arrival from Holland of the ship Anne.
In 1665 Connecticut proclaimed a solemn day of thanksgiving to be kept annually on the last Wednesday in October. Other New England colonies held occasional and local Thanksgivings at various times. In 1789 the federal Congress authorized and requested President George Washington to proclaim a day of thanksgiving for the whole nation. Washington did this in a message setting aside November 26, 1789 as National Thanksgiving Day.
After 1789 the celebration reverted to local and regional observance for almost a hundred years. There grew, however, a strong desire among the majority of the people for a national Thanksgiving Day that would unite all Americans in a festival of gratitude and public acknowledgment for all the blessings God had conferred upon the nation. It was not until October 3, 1863, that this was accomplished, when President Abraham Lincoln issued, in the midst of the Civil War, a Thanksgiving Proclamation. In it the last Thursday of November was set apart for that purpose and made a national holiday.
Since then, every president has followed Lincoln's example, and annually proclaims as a "Day of Thanksgiving" the fourth Thursday in November. Only President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the date, in 1939, from the fourth to the third Thursday of November (to extend the time of Christmas sales). This caused so much consternation and protest that in 1941 the traditional date was restored."
Excerpted from the Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, Francis X. Weiser
A
prayer to our Lord and Savior this Thanksgiving:
O
my divine Savior, transform me into Yourself.
May
my hands be the hands of Jesus.
Grant
that every faculty of my body
may
serve only to glorify you.
Above
all,
transform
my soul and all its powers
so
that my memory, will and affection
may
be the memory, will and affection
of
Jesus.
I
pray You
to
destroy in me
all
that is not of You.
Grant
that I may live
but
in You, by You and for You.
So
that I may truly say,
with
St. Paul,
I
live...now not I...
but
Christ lives in me.
In His Peace.
Deacon Ward
Great post! I especially like the incredible Thanksgiving prayer...thank you. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone at Mater Dei!
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