pat loughery

To all my US American friends and family, I wish you Happy Thanksgiving today!

In recent months, I have been eager to learn from the wisdom of Christians who lived their lives before us, and to see if their traditions provide words of prayer that I could try on as my own voice. Today I looked through the “Carmina Gadelica, Vol. I & II: Hymns and Incantations (Forgotten Books)” (Alexander Carmichael) to see what I might find about thankfulness. The Carmina Gadelica is a collection of the prayers, poems and sayings that Alexander Carmichael gathered from the residents of the outer Hebrides in the late 1800’s, and it represents many generations of spiritual and cultural tradition.

In it, I found this blessing:

AN TINNSGANN (THE DEDICATION) 42, p.99
THANKS to Thee, God,
Who brought’st me from yesterday
To the beginning of to-day,
Everlasting joy
To earn for my soul
With good intent.
And for every gift of peace
Thou bestowest on me,
My thoughts, my words,
My deeds, my desires
I dedicate to Thee.
I supplicate Thee,
I beseech Thee,
To keep me from offence,
And to shield me to-night,
For the sake of Thy Wounds
With Thine offering of grace.

I pray that today, as we gather friends and family and neighbors, we may remember with great thanksgiving that God brought us from yesterday to today, and that these are his gifts of peace to us: Our thoughts, our words, our deeds, and our desires.

May God keep us all from offense today, in our thoughts, words, deeds and desires, by God’s grace.

God’s grace to you and yours!