Next week we celebrate Thanksgiving Day on Thursday the 28th of November. This celebration is a very American day as we pause from the usual happenings to acknowledge gratitude for our blessings, and for our way of life. It is a day that is special in so many ways as people strive to spend it with family members or with very dear friends. It is a day which focuses for so many people on our homes as special places in our lives, which we hold dear in our memories.
Indeed, Thanksgiving is a day that bespeaks the ordinary, while at the same time it evokes the extraordinary in our lives, of how fortunate we are.
As an event, people seem to act different as they go about their business aware of what they have and aware of those in their midst who do not have even the basics of life. Those who appreciate what they possess often times strive to assist others who have less.
For example, St. Augustine Parish in the Tremont section of Cleveland is preparing up to 18,000 turkey dinners for those who would not have such a meal if not for literally hundreds of people who will have cooked and prepared the food, who will have served the dinners or who drove meals to where people actually live.
One can say that for many Thanksgiving Day brings out the best in the lives of countless Americans.
As believers in Almighty God, Thanksgiving is a day that first and foremost is focused on God from whom all that is good is given to us. For those who will go to Mass on Thanksgiving they will hear the Opening Prayer of Mass which states, ?Father all-powerful, your gifts of love are countless and your goodness infinite,? and then the Prayer reminds us what our response should be by stating ?as we come before you on Thanksgiving Day with gratitude for your kindness, open our hearts to have concern for every man, woman, and child, so that we may share your gifts in loving service.?
Each year since my arrival in the Diocese of Cleveland I have been privileged to celebrate Mass in one of our parishes on Thanksgiving Day. This year will be no exception as I will be with the pastor and parishioners of St. Peter Parish in North Ridgeville. And together we will praise God and thank Him as we pray the words of the Preface for Thanksgiving Day--?You have entrusted to us the great gift of freedom, a gift that calls forth responsibility and commitment to the truth that all have a fundamental dignity before you.?
As believers in God celebrating and living Thanksgiving, may we enrich the world around us with the message we bring of God?s love for all people now and forever.
Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.
(The above column by the Most Reverend Richard Lennon, Bishop of Cleveland originally appeared in the Friday, November 22, 2013 issue of the Catholic Universe Bulletin, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Cleveland.)