Clergy Notes for Harvest Thanksgiving — Sunday, October 11, 2020

The pandemic, with its persistence and with no ending of restrictions in sight, is wearing everyone down: frustration, loneliness and isolation, loss of earnings and livelihood for many, a heightened sense of vulnerability and fragility, a yearning for in-person community; these are just some expressions of its impact. And now comes Thanksgiving!

In the current circumstances we might be asking ourselves what we have to be thankful for…. And yet, and yet, Thanksgiving comes to remind us that even in these dark days there is indeed still reason to be thankful. Take some time this weekend to look back over life, even in these recent months as well as longer ago, and, as the old hymn puts it, “Count your blessings, name them one by one.”

Give thanks for creation, and for life itself, for family and loved ones, those with us and those gone before, for friends and neighbours who have been alongside over the years and recently. Give thanks for what enriches our lives, the rain and the sunshine, art and music. Give thanks for gifts and talents, our own and those of experts in, for example, medicine and science. Give thanks for new things we learn day by day. Give thanks too for our fellowship in the Church, the Body of Christ, and for grace to know and share the love of God.

Count your blessings, and then bring them before God in thankful prayer: you may find it helpful to use a General Thanksgiving (the one printed for Reflection in the bulletin this week, or the traditional form in the Book of Common Prayer). Equally, your own words will do just as well!

“Count your blessings, name them one by one;

Count your blessings, see what God hath done;

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”

 

In thanksgiving for you all and with every blessing,

Fr. Kevin

Download the Sunday mass booklet here: Liturgy at Home Pent 19 Harvest Thanksgiving Oct 11 2020