EWTN Family Prayer - Prayer of Thanksgiving

A Catholic Prayer of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving After Mass

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to wish you all a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Day Address by President Abraham Lincoln

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and 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, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

Source

Thank you Father Gordy for this at the Thanksgiving Vigil Mass.

Happy Thanksgiving

This week an article made its way through the Catholic Blogosphere, asking the question Is Thanksgiving Catholic?.

I for one, would like to think so...

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

God bless you all abundantly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As The Tiber Jumper Reminds us "Nothing says Happy Thanksgiving better than the Eucharist"

The Importance of Thanksgiving After Holy Communion

Picture source: AciPrensa

Shared by by Sue of Half the Kingdom via Chris Stoner.

by St Alphonsus Liguori

There is no prayer more pleasing to God, or more profitable to the soul, than thanksgiving after Holy Communion. It is the opinion of many learned authors that, as long as the Sacramental Species remain, the Holy Communion continues to produce an augmentation of grace, provided the soul disposes herself for it by new acts of virtue. Hence, holy souls endeavor to remain as long as possible in prayer after Holy Communion.

The Venerable M Avali spent two hours in prayer after Holy Communion even during her missions. Father Balthasar Alvarez used to say that we ought to set as much value on the time after Holy Communion as if we heard from the Lips of Jesus Christ Himself to His disciples : "But Me you have not always with you"

It is not good practice to begin, as some do, to read immediately after Communion; it is better to spend at least a little time in holy affections, in speaking from your heart with Jesus Christ, Who is within you and in repeating several times some tender affection or prayer.

After Communion, then, the soul should entertain herself with Jesus in affections and prayers. We should be persuaded that prayers after Holy Communion have greater value and merit before God than those that are offered at other times, for then the soul is united to Jesus Christ and her acts derive value from His Presence .

Moreover, we must consider that after receiving Holy Communion, Jesus is more disposed to bestow His graces. St Teresa says that at that time Jesus remains in the soul as on a throne of grace, saying to it: "What wilt thou that I should do to thee?" As if He said : "O Christian soul, I am come for the express purpose of giving thee My graces; ask what you wish and you shall obtain it".

O devout soul, what treasures of grace will you receive if you continue to entertain yourself with Jesus, as least for a quarter of an hour after Holy Communion! But even after thanksgiving, during the day of your Holy Communion, take care by prayers and affections, to keep united with Jesus Whom you have received.