Thanksgiving Defines Us
By Most Rev. Carl F. Mengeling

Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.A. is one of our most cherished and observed National Holidays. It continues to be a vital part of our American heritage and tradition.

Since the first Thanksgiving in the Massachusetts British Colony in 1621 and in the official presidential decrees of authorization, it has been a RELIGIOUS observance.

It was a celebration of thanks to God by the whole community for blessings of body and soul. It was also a time for healing and reconciliation and prayerful hope for the future. It celebrated the life and love of a people of God. It reminded us that all we are and have is a GIFT.

These gifts of nature, people and spirit are to be revered, protected and shared. We are the stewards of these gifts that come from God.

To secularize and neutralize Thanksgiving, by removing all reference to God, is to tear out the very soul of this celebration. This certainly flies against several centuries of our history as a nation and before as colonies.

It is crucial to recall and reclaim the religious character and tradition of our country. I am proud to share with you the words of two of our greatest and most revered presidents; Washington and Lincoln. Both officially established Thanksgiving for the U.S.A. Both were religious men who believed in God.

Both proclamations are a call for the people of our nation to THANK GOD! Yet, on reading there is much more. Both presidents call us to all FOUR purposed of prayer. These four kinds of prayer are at the heart of Catholic teaching for two millennia and before that in Israel. Praise, thanks, contrition and petition are the content of these presidential proclamations for Thanksgiving Day.

It’s important for all to read, reflect and reclaim our religious heritage. Both presidents (Washington and Lincoln) never separated religion from state. President Washington proclaimed a nationwide Thanksgiving Day on October 3, 1789. He refers to God with titles like: Almighty God; Great and Glorious Being; Beneficent Author of all that is good; and Lord and Ruler of Nations. He asks citizens to THANK God, to SEEK PARDON and ASK for blessings. Here are some excerpts:

"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint committee requested me ‘to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.’

"Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th Day of November, next to be devoted by the people of these states to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all united in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks for his kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war."

"And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions."

President Lincoln proclaimed our ANNUAL Thanksgiving Day for the last Thursday of November. That was in 1863 during the horrible Civil War. He too refers to God in many ways: Almighty God; Most High God; Beneficent Father; and Almighty Hand. He too calls us to the four purposes of prayer. Here are some excerpts:

"The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and beautiful skies. To these bounties which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the sources from which they come, others have been added which are 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.

"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, earnestly and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and voice, by the whole American people.

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to observe and set apart the last Thursday of November next as a day of prayer to 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 deliverance and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widow, orphans 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, tranquility and union."

Now is the time to reclaim and celebrate OUR TRUE THANKSGIVING DAY.