Thanksgiving Prayers and Blessings from Different Cultures and Faiths

Great Spirit of Universal Love and Compassion,

Thank you for having chosen us out of limitless creative possibilities

to share the spark of your Divine Life.

Thank you for helping us to understand that we are all part of One creation,

sublime and perfect.

Thank you for all you have given us to reach this moment,

the challenges as well as the joys of walking our life’s true path.

This banquet is a symbol and sign of your continued abundant presence in our lives.

And this we share with one another, knowing in the fullness of our hearts that by partaking in it,

we are united with everyone around this table, around the world, and with you, as well.

Amen.

-LifePath Prayer

 

We come to join in the banquet of love. Let it open our hearts and break down the fears that keep us from loving each other.

–sung by the Dominican nuns

 

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

 

Lord most giving and resourceful,

I implore you;

make it your will

that this people enjoy

the goods and riches you naturally give,

that naturally issue from you,

that are pleasing and savory,

that delight and comfort,

though lasting but briefly,

passing away as if in a dream.

–Aztec Prayer from the 1500′s

 

We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us. We return thanks to the rivers and streams,which supply us with water.

We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases.

We return thanks to the corn, and to her sisters, the beans and squash, which give us life. We return thanks to the bushes and trees, which provide us with fruit. We return thanks to the wind, which, moving the air, has banished diseases.

We return thanks to the moon and the stars, which have given us their light when the sun was gone. We return thanks to our grandfather He-no, that he has protected his grandchildren from witches and reptiles, and has given to us his rain.

We return thanks to the sun, that he has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye. Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in whom is embodied all goodness, and who directs all things for the good of his children.

–Iroquois Prayer from the 1800′s

 

Though our mouths were full of song as the sea, and our tongues of exultation as the multitude of its waves, and our lips of praise as the wide-extended firmament; though our eyes shone with light like the sun and the moon, and our hands were spread forth like the eagles of heaven, and our feet were swift as hinds, we should still be unable to thank thee and bless thy name, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, for one thousandth or one ten thousandth part of the bounties which thou has bestowed upon our fathers and upon us.

–from the Hebrew Prayer Book

 

Call out to the Almighty

Everyone on earth!

Serve God with gladness.

Come before Him with joyous song!

Know that the Almighty, He is God.

It is He who made us and we are His,

His nation and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving.

Enter His courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

The Almighty is good.

His loving-kindness endures forever.

And His faithfulness continues

From generation to generation.

–Psalm 100

 

Come, Lord Jesus, our guest to be

And bless these gifts

Bestowed by Thee.

And bless our loved ones everywhere,

And keep them in Your loving care.

–Moravian Blessing

 

Blessings for the holidays from the staff of LifePath.

(Compiled by Dr. Beverly Nelson, Director of LifePath Center)