By Father Casey

Although popular lore features Pilgrims and Native Americans sharing a harvest feast at Plymouth, the holiday we know as Thanksgiving is actually the result of the relentless will of a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale. For nearly four decades in the middle of the 19th century, Mrs. Hale waged a campaign to establish a day of thanksgiving in the nation. She wrote legislators, governors, and four different presidents, all to no avail. Finally, her plea for the nation to pause for a day of thanks came to Abraham Lincoln, who recognized the wisdom of her idea, and on October 3, 1863, declared a Day of Thanksgiving.  

Lincoln's proclamation came in the very depths of the Civil War, when the outcome was far from decided and gratitude was not a common sentiment in either north or south. Nevertheless, Lincoln entreated everyone to give thanks to God for individual and national blessings, not forgetting to also pray for all the victims of that awful war. Let us "fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and Union."

Sara Hale and President Lincoln understood a timeless Christian truth. Gratitude is balm for the wounded soul, individually and societally. It was just what the nation needed in 1863, and it is just what we need to do in 2025 as the chords that hold us together are badly frayed. We need to pray in thanksgiving for what we have received, and we need also to pray for those neighbors who have experienced too little the blessings of food, safety, and love. Gratitude and humility must go hand in hand, for they are the twin pillars of a healthy soul.

If you're not sure where to find words for your work of giving thanks, allow me to offer some. Below are two litanies: one from The Saint Augustine's Prayer Book, a lovely book of personal piety published by Forward Movement, and a second from a small book of prayers published by Samuel Miller in the 1950s. There are also two additional prayers from those same collections for your use. As Episcopalians, we celebrate the gift of carefully crafted language to guide our prayers, so I hope these will be useful to you in coming days. But whatever words you use, don't hurry, as the lesson of Mrs. Hale from long ago endures: the more we focus our hearts on giving thanks, the sooner God will breathe healing and hope into souls.

 

A Litany for Thanksgiving

From The Saint Augustine's Prayer Book, published by Forward Movement, 2014.

Let us offer our prayers and thanksgivings to God, the giver of every good and perfect gift.

For the earth and the bounty it offers: for the beauty of valleys, hills, plains, and mountains; for flowing streams and surging oceans; we give thee thanks, O Lord.

For the human family: for all that is gracious in every culture, race, and nation; we give thee thanks, O Lord.

For all the good we have inherited from the generations who were before us, and for the opportunity to pass on good gifts to those who will follow us; we give thee thanks, O Lord.

For our families and friends: for those you entrusted to us to love, and those whose love does most to strengthen and sustain us; we give thee thanks, O Lord.

For all that enriches our lives and challenges us to grow: for the ability to work, to create, and to contribute to the common good; we give thee thanks, O Lord.

For the great promises and mercies given us in Christ Jesus: for the Church that unites people of every time and place; for the means of grace and the hope of glory; we give thee thanks, O Lord.

Lord, we offer our prayers unto thee, for peace and respect among all the peoples of the earth; for a just and proper sharing of the bounty which we receive at thy hands; Lord, hear our prayer.

For the President, the courts, and legislatures, that they may serve justice and promote the common good; Lord, hear our prayer.

For this region of cities and towns, for its industry and commerce, its school and universities, its leaders and public servants; Lord, hear our prayer.

For those who are lonely or forgotten, the unemployed and destitute, the hungry and unhoused, those whose homes are broken or torn by strife, and for those in grief or sorrow; Lord, hear our prayer.

For ourselves and those we love, that we may receive a spirit of wisdom to know thy will and a spirit of courage to accomplish it; Lord, hear our prayer.

For a sense of joy and wonder if all thy works, for faith that conquers anxiety, for love that casts out fear, and for hope that strengthens us for thy service; Lord, hear our prayer.

Open our eyes, Lord, that we may see all that you give so abundantly, and teach us to be grateful; for the things we hold closest to our heart, for the things that all share in common, for the smallest pleasures, and for the great hope of heaven. In all that you have given us, let us see your hand, and let our delight in your gift become an unending prayer of thanksgiving and an ever-growing habit of generosity toward others. For the sake of him who loves us and gave himself for us, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

 

A Litany for Thanksgiving

(from Prayers for Daily Use by Samuel Miller, published by Harper and Row, 1957)

For all the things for which we have never given thanks to thee, O Lord, we humbly bow our hearts.

For common things of earth which sustain our bodies in health and strength, though we pay them scant attention to them, we give thee thanks.

For far-off things in the ages past or in lands distant from us which enlarge our heritage and expand our horizon, we give thee thanks.

For invisible things of heaven and earth which sweeten life with beauty and grace, we give thee thanks.

For things of the spirit which disclose to us the beauty of thy holiness and sanctify the passing time with eternal meaning, we give thee thanks.

For things bought with a great price, given to us without cost, by which we are deepened and heightened to the measure of Christ, we give thee thanks.

Though there be no end to thy gift, help us to number them as they are revealed to us day by day. Amen.

 

Two Other Prayers

Of thine own gifts do we render unto thee, thank-offerings for thine every gift; and firstly for the bounties of the natural life, for home and happiness, for health and strength, for food and raiment, for employment, for the opportunity of work and its rewards, for powers of mind and body, for possibilities, privileges, and aspirations of the spirit, for kith and kin, for faithful friends and kind acquaintances, and especially for the sweet, innocent joys, duties, and responsibilities of human love. Pour out, we humbly entreat thee, upon these thy gifts and upon all for whom we thank or pray thee, the added, fulfilling, hallowing, protecting, controlling, inspiring gift of the Holy Spirit, that all things may be used according to thy will, and that we may be united to the very cross of Christ and serve thee to the utmost service of our life; in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

O God, if we thank thee for bread and meat, for the shelter of house and the warmth of clothing, for daily work and thoughtful friends, and reasonable margins of security and comfort, and yet have no pain of heart, no anguish in the midst of our ease, that even now other children of thine starve, homeless and hopeless, with no sign of human caring, fearing the morrow more than death, then leave us without thy blessing until we learn the ways of thy mercy. Deliver us from the gross sin of indifference and sanctify to us what we enjoy by the courage and kindness with which we share it. Amen.