By Father Ted

If you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner this week, there is a good chance that you are a little overwhelmed with your final preparations. Is your turkey large enough to feed everyone? Is that can of evaporated milk from six years ago still safe to go in a pumpkin pie? Did the grocery store run out of Sister Schubert's Yeast Rolls? Perhaps you are still unsure about who is going to be there. Do you have enough chairs and place settings? If not, who is going to have to sit at the kids' table? Maybe it is your first time hosting Thanksgiving and you are worried about getting the timing right. Even for experienced hosts, getting everything to the table at the correct temperature at the same time can seem like a nearly-impossible task.

But one thing you should not worry about is how to say grace. The blessing before the meal is arguably the most important part of the day, since giving thanks is the entire reason for the holiday. Perhaps you have a favorite blessing that you have said before meals for your entire life. Maybe you will pray freely, inviting others around the table to add their own prayers of thanksgiving. You don't have to have a call-and-response version of Psalm 145:15-16 from the '28 prayerbook like the Clarkson family does (The eyes of all wait upon thee, O Lord;* and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand,* and fillest all things living with plenteousness.), but you should probably try a little harder than, "Good food, good meat, good God: Let's eat."

If it is your turn to say grace this Thanksgiving, I hope you will give thanks for all the good things that God has done for you and for your loved ones this year. Even when times are hard and lean, or when the troubles of the world seem insurmountable, there are always reasons to be thankful. And since you are all good Episcopalians, remember that you can always count on the Book of Common Prayer to help you with your intercessions. If you're looking for some lovely words to pray around the table this year, may I suggest this lovely prayer from page 836 of the BCP.

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

On behalf of the clergy, staff, and vestry at Transfiguration, I want to wish you, your family, and friends a very happy Thanksgiving. We are grateful for you.