Thanksgiving Blessing

I do not cease to give thanks for you as I  remember you in my prayers. -- Ephesians 1:16
 
We have heard and read about the stories of the First Thanksgiving Day in our country and how the people gave thanks with those native to this land for their survival, for the abundance of this land and their support of one another. However, let us discover more about the very first Thanksgiving meal, that of the First Eucharist (which means Thanksgiving) that Jesus instituted on the night of the Last Supper, the night before He died.
 
Our Lord, our brother, was given to all of us by the     Father for the salvation of the world. In the freely giving of Himself, He offered a final prayer, His “last will and testament.” How amazing is this portion of His prayer for us, when it is some of his last words on this earth! In John 17: 24-26, the Lord started his prayer to the Father in this way, “Father, [my disciples] are your gift to me,   I wish where I am they may also be with me . . . . I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me be in them and    I in them.” Jesus loved us so much and was grateful for us as His disciples that He gave thanks to the Father for this gift and He wishes to be with us forever. As we    receive Him in Word and Sacrament, He is in us.
 
We gather here on the sacred ground of our parishes at the Basilica and St. John’s with those who have gone  before us, our Communion of Saints and celebrate our blessings and the Goodness from whom All Blessings flow. We gather together when possible with family and friends on the sacred ground of our homes and other places special to us and call down the Divine, Our most loving God, a God who does not remain invisible, but is revealed in all the beauty that surrounds us, the food and the goodness that becomes the Lord visible through us, and we give thanks . . . 
 
A Psalm of Thanksgiving                                                                                                                                           (written about 900-500 years before Christ)
 
Shout joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song. Know that the LORD is God, he made us, we belong to him, we are his people,      the flock he shepherds. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise.  Give thanks to him, bless his name; good indeed is the LORD, His mercy endures forever,        his faithfulness lasts through every generation.
 
Have a Happy and
Blessed Thanksgiving,
Fr. John