Prayers for Gratitude and Thanksgiving

This page provides prayers for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

Before I begin, I would like to offer a brief prayer of thanksgiving that I have relied upon heavily, especially throughout the past year as we have suffered as a community, and as a nation, and as a world, in so many ways: 

Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God.
Loving Creator,
We asked for strength, and you gave us difficulties to make us strong.
We asked for wisdom, and you gave us problems to solve.
We asked for prosperity, and you gave us purpose and brains to use.
We asked for courage, and you gave us fears to overcome.
We asked for patience, and you gave us situations where we were forced to wait.
We asked for love, and you gave us troubled people to help.
We asked for justice, and you called us to be just and to lead with integrity.
Lord, we have received nothing that we asked for or wanted.
And yet, we received everything that we needed.
For this, we give thanks.

- Written and offered by Dr. Colleen Hanycz on 1/25/21 at the “Introduction to the Xavier Community” event upon her selection as the 35^th president of Xavier University

A Simple Prayer of Gratitude

Thank you, Lord, for the blessings you have bestowed on my life. You have provided me with more than I could ever have imagined. You have surrounded me with people who always look out for me. You have given me family and friends who bless me every day with kind words and actions. They lift me up in ways that keep my eyes focused on you and make my spirit soar.

Also, thank you, Lord, for keeping me safe. You protect me from those things that seem to haunt others. You help me make better choices and provide me with advisors to help me with life’s difficult decisions. You speak to me in so many ways so that I always know you are here.

And Lord, I am so grateful for keeping those around me safe and loved. I hope that you provide me with the ability and sense to show them every day how much they matter. I hope that you give me the ability to give to them the same kindness they have provided to me.

I am extremely grateful for all of your blessings in my life, Lord. I pray that you remind me of just how blessed I am and that you never allow me to forget to show my gratitude in prayer and returned acts of kindness.

Thank you, Lord.

Crowded With Gratitude

Lord God,
Our hearts are crowded with gratitude
as we celebrate the feast of Thanksgiving.
We have come to this our feasting table
with great joy and eagerness,
for we are truly grateful to you, our God,
for all that we have been given.
We pause now and, in silent prayer,
do thank you for the great generosity of Your gifts.

We also thank one another for gifts -
especially for the gifts of love and affection
that we have freely shared.
We are thankful
for all who are present at this our feast
as well as for all those who have labored in love
in order to bring this dinner to our table.

May You, our God, bless this Thanksgiving feast
and all of us who shall share it
in your holy name.

- Hays, Edward, Prayers for the Domestic Church: A Handbook for Worship in the Home (Kansas: Forest of Peace Books, 1979), 122.

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Giving Thanks

For the expanding grandeur of creation, worlds known and unknown, galaxies beyond galaxies, filling us with awe and challenging our imaginations:
We give thanks this day.
For this fragile planet earth, its times and tides, its sunsets and seasons:
We give thanks this day.
For the joy of human life, its wonders and surprises, its hopes and achievements:
We give thanks this day.
For our human community, our common past and future hope, our oneness transcending all separation, our capacity to work for peace and justice in the midst of hostility and oppression:
We give thanks this day.
For high hopes and noble causes, for faith without fanaticism, for understanding of views not shared:
We give thanks this day.
For all who have labored and suffered for a fairer world, who have lived so that others might live in dignity and freedom:
We give thanks this day.
For human liberty and sacred rites; for opportunities to change and grow, to affirm and choose:
We give thanks this day.
We pray that we may live not by our fears but by our hopes, not by our words but by our deeds.
We give thanks this day.

- O. Eugene Pickett

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Remembering Others

O God, when I have food,
help me to remember the hungry;
When I have work,
help me to remember the jobless;
When I have a home,
help me to remember those who have no home at all;
When I am without pain,
help me to remember those who suffer,
And remembering,
help me to destroy my complacency;
bestir my compassion,
and be concerned enough to help;
By word and deed,
those who cry out for what we take for granted.

- Samuel F. Pugh

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Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything thy goodness sends.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Ev'ry Year About This Time

God, ev'ry year about this time,
according to routine,
I've bowed my head in the accepted way
and offered thanks, like some well synchronized machine
that prayed because it was the time to pray.
But, God, this year is different, this year I seem to feel
America's Thanksgiving is my own,
that in my nation's gratitude I have a part that's real,
a part that until now I've never known.
And, God, this year a deep humility has filled my heart,
a newborn pride rings true throuout my soul
because I do belong, because I have and am a part,
a tiny part of one tremendous whole.
I think I know the feeling of those first Americans
who said, "We must give thanks for this, our land."
I cherish now the rights that are each woman's, ev'ry man's,
the rights I've just begun to understand.
This year my heart has learned what all Thanksgiving Days are for,
true thankfulness at last I realize,
but, God, I'm sorry that it took the tragedy of war
in other lands to open up my eyes. Again I bow my head but this time deep within me stirs
a mighty prayer, part of one vast design,
"God, help me make America as proud that I am hers
as I am proud, and grateful she is mine!"

- Kathryn Kay

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Thanksgiving Is

Thanksgiving is
a time of gratitude to God, our Creator and Provider,
whose guidance and care go before us...
and whose love is with us forever.

Thanksgiving is
a time to reflect on the changes,
to remember that we, too, grow and change
from one season of life to another.

Thanksgiving is
a time of changing seasons, when leaves turn golden
in Autumn's wake and apples are crisp
in the first chill breezes of fall.

Let us remember the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
As we see the beauty of Autumn,
let us acknowledge the many blessings which are ours...
let us think of our families and friends..
and let us give thanks in our hearts.

- Author Unknown

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Thankful For Today

We thank you God,
for creating the world
and for preserving it until now.
We thank you for the regular return of day and night,
and of the seasons,
and for the dependability of nature and of time.
We thank you for memory,
which enables us to build on the experiences of the past;
for imagination,
which admits us to a wider world than we could otherwise know;
and for foresight,
by which we plan for the future.
We thank you for your patience with us in our failings;
for friends and family with whom we can celebrate our successes;
and for those closest to us who support us in our times of need.
Bless this meal and us gathered here.
Bless those who have little food or friends to comfort them in body or spirit.
Bless those who are unable to be with us this day,
and those who have gone before us in faith.
We ask this in your name.

- Author Unknown

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Thanksgiving for Healing

Omnipotent and eternal God,
You watch over your children,
with your tender and loving care.
I thank you this day
for your mercy and grace.
I am grateful for your healing power,
and for the abundant blessings
you have given me.
But most of all,
I am thankful for the promise of salvation,
given through your Son, our Lord.
Through him, when all is completed,
there will be no more sickness or pain.
I pray in his name.

- David Bennett

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