By the Most Rev. Edward K. Braxton
Bishop of Belleville
We give thanks to You, O God Almighty, for Your wondrous creation: the millions of galaxies; the billions of glittering stars in each galaxy; our own galaxy, The Milky Way; for our star, the life sustaining sun; for earth’s companion, the moon, with its soft and lovely light.
O God, we thank You and we praise You!
We give You thanks for our wayside planet, the earth, set in this vast universe; for its light tempered to our eyes; for its sounds tempered to our ears; its air, to our lungs; the weight of gravity, to our bodies so that we can live on earth because Your Providence guided it for us through the ages of development.
O God, we thank You and we praise You!
We give You thanks for this beautiful world: the changes of the seasons: the exhilaration of spring, the richness of summer, the multi-colored fall, the shrewd bite of winter. We give you thanks for the 525,600 minutes that unfold in the course of a year.
O God, we thank You and we praise You!
We give You thanks for the endless beauty of the earth: sunrise and sunset; the brilliance of day, the gathering dusk, the dark of night; the sky, this brave, o’erhanging firmament, this majestic roof fretted with golden fire; the clouds, bright towers of silence stealing into infinity; the roll of thunder, the flash of lightning; the beneficent rain; the strength of mountains; the ever-changing face of the waters, including our own Mississippi River.
O God, we thank You and we praise You!
We thank you for the amazing diversity of our kin, the wonderful animals; the astonishing variety and loveliness of the flowers and trees so abundant.
O God, we thank You and we praise You!
We give You thanks for ourselves, all of humanity, Your creatures whom You have set over the other works of Your hands; men and women endowed with reason, with freedom, with deep emotions, endowed with bodies — “in form and motion how admirable;” Your images and Your children destined to live with You eternally in Paradise.
O God, we thank You and we praise You!
We give You thanks for our country, spanning the fairest portion of a continent, from sea to sea: so blessed with rich resources – the gifts of Your goodness: We are so extraordinarily blessed in our democratic government. Make us fully determined to share America’s promise with every person, of whatever race, or creed, who dwell here, especially the oppressed, the excluded, and the marginalized.
Sustain us in the face of nature’s mighty power. Make us circumspect in this time of political transition, economic uncertainty, conflict, and war.
O God, we thank You and we praise You!
We give You thanks for our Redemption, wrought through the Life, Death and Resurrection of Your Son, Jesus Christ, the King, by the power of Your Holy Spirit; for our grace-filled lives in the Catholic Church; where we come close to You in the mornings, afternoons and evenings of our lives, in Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Marriage, Ordination and the Anointing of the Sick and the Dying; where we bring the eminently gentle remains of our Dear Ones who have died, returning them to You, hoping that You will give them a share in Eternal Life.
O God, we thank You and we praise You!
We give thanks to You, O God, for no human counsel has devised and wrought these things. They come from Your bounty. They are Your gracious gifts, O Most High God!
Amen! Amen! Alleluia!
