Thanksgiving Blessings to you and yours today; prayers for your table

Dear Friends,

May this day be filled with grace, with love, and with thanks for the great abundance God has given us. May your table overflow with the harvest of this good earth, and may you be surrounded by those you love. May God's blessings follow you always.

I've been asked in the past to share Thanksgiving blessings. Here are four of my favorites, the first my father did every evening at dinner when I was growing up:

From the Book of Common Prayer, page 835

Give us grateful hearts, our Father, for all thy mercies, and make us mindful of the needs of others; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Harvest (BCP p. 840)

Most gracious God, by whose knowledge the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew; We yield thee hearty thanks and praise for the return of seedtime and harvest, for the increase of the ground and the gathering in of its fruits, and for all the other blessings of they merciful providence bestowed upon this nation and people. And, we beseech thee, give us a just sense of these mercies, such as may appear in our lives by a humble, holy and obedient walking before thee all our days; though Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost be all glory and honor, world without end. Amen.

Grace
by Rafael Jesus Gonzalez

Thanks & blessings be
to the Sun & the Earth
for this bread & this wine,
this fruit, this meat, this salt,
this food;
thanks be & blessing to them
who prepare it, who serve it;
thanks & blessings to them
who share it
(& also the absent & the dead).
Thanks & Blessing to them who bring it
(may they not want),
to them who plant & tend it,
harvest & gather it
(may they not want);
thanks & blessing to them who work
& blessing to them who cannot;
may they not want - for their hunger
sours the wine & robs
the taste from the salt.
Thanks be for the sustenance & strength
for our dance & work of justice, of peace.
Amen.

Giving Thanks
Based on a prayer by Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)

Holy and gracious God, we give thanks for the gift of this gathering; for the food before us; the loving hands that have prepared it; and the blessings we share together. Kindle our hearts and awaken hope, that we may know you always as our companion along the way. Forgive us where we have fallen short with each other and with ourselves; heal our wounds, restore our health, strengthen our souls, and help us to be ever mindful the needs of those near us who have so little. Teach us to believe that by your grace all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. Amen.