Everyday Thanksgiving

A presentation to Conference of Catholic Women, Ascension Church, Boca Raton, FL September 18, 2023

I suspect you’re looking behind me at the Power Point and wondering why I chose a cornucopia for tonight’s picture. After all, Thanksgiving is still two months away, isn’t it?

Actually, that’s my point. It’s wonderful that we do set aside a day each year to give thanks – but do we really? Do we really celebrate the full meaning of Thanksgiving, or are we distracted by the parades, the turkey, the football? And, of course, the plans for Black Friday shopping.

At that first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims gave thanks for a harvest which they hoped would take them through the winter months ahead. They gave thanks for the friendship with the Native Americans, whose knowledge of local conditions had proved invaluable to the Pilgrims. They gave thanks to God, for delivering them to this strange new world, where they were free to worship them as they wished.

They gave thanks for what they had. Surely they mourned what they had lost: friends and family left behind in England; those who had died on the journey; even the4 belongings they had left behind. Surely there was a little girl who mourned the loss of her favorite doll; surely there was a little boy who mourned the loss of a pet left behind.

But they did not gather to mourn that which they had lost, but to give thanks for what they had. Whatever prayers they may have said that day are lost to us. What do we imagine that prayer might have been? What's the best prayer of thanks we have?

I have an undergrad degree in Communication. I’m a paralegal, trained to write and negotiate contracts. I have a graduate degree in Theology.

And so, by both training and inclination, I look at things analytically, parsing words to see what they mean in tone, and context. And when I bring this analytic attitude to prayer, I make interesting discoveries.

So, with Thanksgiving two months away, why a cornucopia?

Actually, that’s my point. It’s wonderful that we do set aside a day each year to give thanks – but do we really? Do we really celebrate the full meaning of Thanksgiving, or are we distracted by the parades, the turkey, the football? And, of course, the plans for Black Friday shopping.

And do we really focus on giving thanks, or do we just say a rushed Grace Before Meals that ends with “pass the cranberry sauce"?

And then I began to parse the words of that same Grace Before Meals which we all know so well. “Bless us oh Lord, and these thy gifts….” That doesn’t simply relate to the meal on the table in front of us. It’s everything: the people around us, the space we are meeting in, the very plates we will eat off. All we have, all that surrounds us, are gifts from God. Sure, we go on to say “which we are about to receive.” But we have already received them, all of these gifts; the meal is at the table, even on our plates. Every moment of every day, every breath we take, is a gift from Gog. And each moment, we receive and are about to receive more and more gifts from God. “From they bounty.” All we receive, we receive from the bountifulness of God. Bounty, “something given or occurring in generous amounts.” We receive all that is good from the bounty of God, for all good comes from God. “Through Christ our Lord.” All we receive, we receive through Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary. He died for our sins, to redeem us, to sanctify us so that we would be worthy to receive the gifts from God.

We can never be truly worthy. Even the best of us are imperfect in the eyes of God.

But if we make that Grace Before Meals not just our prayer before we eat, but our morning offering, our noontime prayer, our last thought before we drift off to sleep: to always live in gratitude to God for all He has and continues to give us; if we can do that – ah, what wonders await us in heaven.