We invite you to bring the bread and wine you will be serving at your Thanksgiving Dinner for a special blessing.
Thanksgiving Mass
Thursday, November 23
10:00 AM
This will be the ONLY Mass celebrated on this day; there will NOT be a regular (8:30 AM) daily Mass, NO confessions at 5:30 PM, NO Rosary and NO 7:00 PM Mass in Spanish.
The parish offices will be closed Thursday, November 23 through Sunday, November 26, and will re-open at 9:00 AM on Monday, November 27. NOTE: For Friday, November 24, we will only celebrate 8:30 AM Mass. The Church will close immediately following the morning Mass. We will not hold Friday morning Adoration.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Generous and merciful God, we thank You for Your abundant gifts to us.
As we celebrate this Thanksgiving feast, we ask You to send Your Spirit,
to open our hearts to You and our neighbor, that we may share the gifts You have given us
as Your Son Jesus taught us to.
Thank You for the many blessings of our lives:
our family and friends, our home and the food we eat,
our health and employment.
We ask Your blessing on all gathered here today,
and all Your people throughout the world,
through Christ Your Son.
Amen.
Thanksgiving Day
By Fr. Paul Turner
Thanksgiving Day may be observed with a special Mass at Catholic churches throughout the United States of America. The day is a secular holiday with strong religious roots. This day implies that there is a God, that God is provident, that we recognize what God has done, that we can address God about our blessings, and that the best thing we can say is "Thanks."
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops includes this day on the liturgical calendar for the country as an optional memorial. Parishes are therefore not obliged to observe it. They may celebrate whatever weekday Mass would otherwise fall on that day this year. But most parishes choose to make this a special Mass of thanksgiving. If anyone knows how to give thanks to God, the church should know how to do it best. The very word Eucharist means "thanksgiving." There is no more fitting way to celebrate this feast than to join in prayer at the table of the Lord.
The Roman Missal offers a set of prayers that the priest may use for a Thanksgiving Day Mass, including a special preface to open the Eucharistic prayer. Readings may be taken from the lectionary’s Mass "In Thanksgiving to God." There are several choices here, so the readings you hear may change from year to year.
Some churches observe other customs. There may be a food collection at Mass so that those who have trouble paying for groceries will benefit from the generosity of the faithful. Or parishes might invite you to bring some of the food you will eat at your own table this day. In that case, you may hear the Blessing of Food on Thanksgiving Day from the Book of Blessings.
EVERYDAY STEWARDSHIP - RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS
Thanksgiving Day Is Coming!
Thanksgiving will be here before you know it, and you will soon be saying, “Pass me the mashed potatoes, please.” This November holiday has its roots in American history and has grown into a day where we remember all the things for which we are thankful: country, family, friends, health, etc. Unfortunately, we can find ourselves so caught up with travel plans and buying the perfect turkey or ham that we let the day pass us by, and all we can focus on is how much we ate and who won the day’s football games. That’s why it is time NOW to begin reflecting daily of all things, great and small, that we are thankful for in life.
Gratitude is a key characteristic of a good Everyday Steward, but it does not develop in us without effort. In the coming days, we can contemplate all those things God has given us. If it helps, we can create a written list and bring it with us to the Thanksgiving dinner table. The point is that too often we take so many gifts for granted, and unless we pause and purposely reflect, we miss the chance to give thanks. A healthy and hearty heart filled with gratitude can make the highs in life that much higher and the lows easier to bear. Increased gratitude will also bring us closer to the source of all those good gifts, our God.
So, what will Thanksgiving be like for you this year? You have some time to make it something more than it has been in the past. The choice is yours.
— Tracy Earl Welliver