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A Family Liturgy to Use on Thanksgiving Day

Below is a family liturgy to use for Thanksgiving Day. It assumes five readers and allows opportunity for all present to offer a single sentence prayer of thanks. Start just before the meal, then continue after the meal.

Thanksgiving Day

Reader 1:

Today is a special day in the life of our nation and in the life of our home. We gather together to give thanks to the Almighty God for the blessings he has granted us and those whom we love.

Reader 2:

(Prayer). Father, we acknowledge your goodness to us and to all humankind on this Thanksgiving Day. Receive our words of praise to your glory, and bless this food. May it strengthen our bodies and nourish our spirits. Keep us mindful, Lord, of the needs of others, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Meal

Reader 3:

Read White House Thanksgiving Proclamation 2020

Reader 4:

Psalm 118
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
2 Let all Israel repeat:“His faithful love endures forever.”
3 Let Aaron’s descendants, the priests, repeat:“His faithful love endures forever.”
4 Let all who fear the Lord repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.”

Reader 5:

Romans 11
33 Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!
34 For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice?
35 And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back?
36 For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.
This is the word of the Lord.

Reader 1:

Let us offer a prayer of thanksgiving to God for his blessings on us this past year. In the prayer I will pause so that you can offer sentence prayers of thanksgiving from your own experience. Let us pray. Almighty God and Father, we most humbly offer you our prayers of praise and thanksgiving for the gifts and benefits of the past year.

Add personal prayers here.

And now as we enter the season of Advent, may our hearts continue to resound with Thanksgiving as we remember your coming into this world. Amen.
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