A TIME TO GIVE THANKS

NOVEMBER 19, 2006

Happiness comes not from getting what we want, but in being content with what we have. Our wants are large, but our actual needs are few. We could all be richer, have better health and beauty, and be more socially prominent. The art of life, though, is about gratitude for the blessings we have. Happiness comes gently and fills us when we live out the true meaning of our lives, which is to make a sincere gift of ourselves, out of love, to God and others.

On Thanksgiving Day, next week, we will have the opportunity to remember once again how rich we are in God’s blessings.

The first Thanksgiving Day was celebrated in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that the fourth Thursday of every November should be set aside as a day for the nation to give thanks for its many blessings. What makes his act most remarkable is the fact that he undertook it during the most terrible time in our nation’s history. The American civil war was raging. North and South were attacking each other with tooth and claw, and the war’s outcome remained in doubt, as did the future of the nation.

Instead of imparting a negative message about everything that was wrong, President Lincoln called the people to offer prayers of thanksgiving. Here are his inspiring words:
“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of 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. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. 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, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.
“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners 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.” - President: Abraham Lincoln

May we lay our cares and causes of strife and unrest aside next Thursday, count our many blessings, renew our trust in God, show good will toward all, share what we have with those who have less, and enjoy a most blessed and restful Thanksgiving!

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 05-Jun-2008 9:48 sitemap