We gather together in your Name, O Eternal God, to thank you for all that is good and beautiful in our lives. For homes and work, for food and clean water, for family and friends, and for the church in which we worship you, and through which we serve our neighbors. We gratefully remember before you all who bring in the harvest, who build the things that make our lives easier, and who minister to us in shops and offices, hospitals and schools. For all these blessings and many more, we praise you in the Name of the greatest blessing of all, even Jesus Christ. Amen.
INTERCESSORY PRAYER
O God, loving Creator, you give us each day our daily bread.
We thank you for your loving-kindness.
You provide for us the things we need, and fill our days with your grace.
May the gratitude we show this Thanksgiving so fill us
that we may share our blessings with those who do not enjoy them.
May all our human family awaken, as we do,
to the food they require
and the things they need to eat their bread in peace.
O God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Bread of Life, come down from heaven:
We thank you not only that you came into the world
and taught us the way to God,
but you gave yourself that our hunger for life might be filled.
Nourish our souls, we pray.
Strengthen us by your word.
And may the love you taught us be the beginning and end of who we are.
O God the Holy Spirit, Comforter and Advocate,
you are the source of our joy and hope.
May all be filled with the peace of God.
As we ask that the hungry might be filled,
we pray for the full, that they might know hunger.
May they know that we do not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds from God’s mouth.
Teach us to give and not just to take.
And help us to receive the gifts that others offer.
Finally, at all times, remind us that all things come from you,
and that you hear our prayer each day: Give us this day our daily bread.
All this we ask your Name, O God, Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
—based on Reformierte Liturgie
A LITANY OF THANKSGIVING
O God our Maker, accept our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us.
We thank you for the splendor of your creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for giving us work which demands our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us. We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life.
We thank you for the cross and the empty tomb, and for the new life our faith in him brings us.
Grant us, we pray, the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Christ and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things.
Amen.
O God our Maker, accept our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us.
We thank you for the splendor of your creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for giving us work which demands our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us. We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life.
We thank you for the cross and the empty tomb, and for the new life our faith in him brings us.
Grant us, we pray, the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Christ and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things.
Amen.
—Book of Common Prayer (alt.)
BENEDICTION
The poet Wendell Berry once said
that work done in gratitude, kindly, and well, is prayer.
So go forth in the strength of God to do the work of love:
• Be gracious,
giving and expecting nothing in return.
• Be kind,
for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
• Be grateful,
for every blessing and every encounter is a gift from God.
And as you go, take courage,
for with you, at every moment of every day,
answering your prayers—
both spoken and silent, conscious and unconscious—
goes the Triune God:
✚ Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
