Whether prayer is a part of every day for your family, or reserved for special occasions and holidays, families nationwide gather together on Thanksgiving Day and bow their heads in prayer before their meal.
Traditionally, the dinner host may say the blessing, or ask a guest to do the honor. Use these six prayers as inspiration for your family’s blessing at this year’s holiday feast.
Thanksgiving poem
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From the Bible
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness:
come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God:
it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,
and into his courts with praise:
be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the LORD is good;
his mercy is everlasting;
and his truth endureth to all generations.
– Psalm 100
In Gratitude
Thank you, Father, for having created us and given us to each other in the human family. Thank you for being with us in all our joys and sorrows, for your comfort in our sadness, your companionship in our loneliness. Thank you for yesterday, today, tomorrow and for the whole of our lives. Thank you for friends, for health and for grace. May we live this and every day conscious of all that has been given to us.
– From The Catholic Prayer Book
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A holiday poem
PLANNING FOR THE BIG DAY? Make sure to check out all the recipes featured in our Thanksgiving Day feast menu – including step-by-step video and photos!
Traditional blessing
Our Father in Heaven,
We give thanks for the pleasure
Of gathering together for this occasion.
We give thanks for this food
Prepared by loving hands.
We give thanks for life,
The freedom to enjoy it all
And all other blessings.
As we partake of this food,
We pray for health and strength
To carry on and try to live as You would have us.
This we ask in the name of Christ,
Our Heavenly Father.
– Harry Jewell
Child’s Thanksgiving prayer
