Steve Martaindale

In church Sunday, we read a litany for Thanksgiving. Its list of things for which we’re thankful really hit home. I extracted the following from the call-and-response format. What would you add?

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For the good world; for things great and small, beautiful and awesome, for seen and unseen splendors.

For human life; for talking and moving and thinking together; for common hopes and hardships shared from birth until our dying.

For work to do and strength to work; for the comradeship of labor; for exchanges of good humor and encouragement.

For family; for living together and eating together; for family amusements and family pleasures.

For the young; for their high hopes; for their irreverence toward worn-out values; for their search for freedom.

For growing up and growing old; for wisdom deepened by experience; for rest in leisure; and for time made precious by its passing.

For your help in times of doubt and sorrow; for healing our diseases; for preserving us in temptation and danger.

For the church into which we have been called; for the good news we receive by Word and Sacrament; for our life together in the Lord.

For your Holy Spirit, who guides our steps and brings us gifts of faith and love; who prays in us and prompts our grateful worship.

Above all, O God, for your Son Jesus Christ, who lived and died and lives again for our salvation; for our hope in him; and for the joy of serving him.

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Happy Thanksgiving!