Celebrating Thanksgiving

On Thursday, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving. It officially was proclaimed in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, even though it had been celebrated earlier than that. It is a day in which we give thanks for the many things that we have been given. Sometimes we want to ask ourselves “What is there to give thanks for?” Especially with everything that is going on in our world today, with wars, hunger, inflation, strife, etc. It is a trying time right now, so why do we want to give thanks?

Thanksgiving is also the unofficial kickoff of the holiday season. It is a time that will get busy with family and friends. As we are giving thanks for all of the gifts God has given us also ask Him for strength for the challenges we have in our lives. We spend a day with our families and have a feast, a feast to remember the many gifts God has given us. This is a day in which we usually over-indulge in food and drink, watch some football, play games, or many other things; after all, we are celebrating. We can turn any event into a time to celebrate and over-indulge, which leads us to the evening and the next day… BLACK FRIDAY. I find it interesting that the day we give thanks for the gifts we have we then begin to line up at the malls trying to get ready to beat out our neighbor for the best deal of the season. I know that, especially this year, it is great to save a bit on the things that we are going to purchase anyway. I pray that we will all have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving this year and be grateful for the gifts we have. The virtue for this month is gratitude and it is something that I do not think we do enough.

The word that we use for the Blessed Sacrament is Eucharist, this word is transliterated from the Greek word Eucharistia and the word translated means thanksgiving, so in essence we are celebrating a feast of thanksgiving every Sunday and every day when we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Mass is a celebration of giving thanks to God for the gifts that He has given us, as well as a remembrance of the sacrifice that He suffered. We are called to play a part in both of these elements of the Holy Mass, the sacrifice and the thanksgiving. As we celebrate our Mass for the Thanksgiving holiday, remember to thank God for all of those things that we have been given. Just like in our celebration of Thanksgiving Day, we have choices on how we will participate. We can choose to not participate at all, or we can eat and participate with our Church, our earthly family and our heavenly family. Remember also that as we begin our Advent preparations looking forward to the celebration of Christmas, that we should be mindful of those people around us, those who are in need as well as our own families.

God bless,
Fr. Ken