Reverend Peter Marshall's Commentary Archive

A Thanksgiving Litany

  ". . .Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?" (Luke 12:56)  

In place of my usual Thanksgiving commentary I decided to do something a bit different this year: a Thanksgiving litany that you can pray together as a family on Thanksgiving Day. I am sending it out two days early, in the hopes that you will receive it in time take it with you if you are traveling this week. For those unfamiliar with the use of litanies in prayer, this is how it works: the person leading in prayer reads the first part of each petition, and when he or she says "O Lord," that's the signal for everyone to join together in praying: "We give thanks." 

If any of you would like to make use of my traditional Thanksgiving story of Squanto and the Pilgrims, you can access the commentary archive at the top of my website homepage, and copy the Thanksgiving commentary for either '07 or '08.  

May you and yours have a truly blessed Thanksgiving in the Lord!  

Here's the litany: 

For that intrepid little band of Pilgrims, whose persevering courage in obeying Your call to an inhospitable wilderness led them to plant the first constitutional government in the New World, and whose Thanksgiving celebration was the forerunner of what we do today -- 

O Lord, we give thanks. 

For the Spanish and French missionary friars, the Puritans of New England, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, the Moravians of the Carolinas, and other early Christian settlers who brought the Gospel of Jesus Christ to America and founded a Christian nation -- 

O Lord, we give thanks. 

For the high privilege of being a citizen of the United States of America, the freest and most blessed nation on the face of the earth -- 

O Lord, we give thanks. 

For the men and women of the Armed Services, whose sacrificial commitment to defend America from her enemies enables us to live in safety without fear -- 

O Lord, we give thanks. 

For the priceless gift of our freedom, often taken for granted and seldom fully appreciated -- 

O Lord, we give thanks. 

For all those we call family, who love us despite our shortcomings, failures, and sins -- 

O Lord, we give thanks. 

For Your mercies, which are new every morning, and Your faithfulness, which endures to all generations -- 

O Lord, we give thanks. 

For Your forgiveness, which is always available to us through faith in Jesus Christ, and the power of His shed blood -- 

O Lord, we give thanks. 

And lastly, for the most precious gift of all: the hope of salvation unto eternal life which is ours through faith in Jesus Christ -- 

O Lord, we give thanks.

Copyright, 2009, Peter J. Marshall. All rights reserved.     

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