Bring your Unitarian Universalism into your home at Thanksgiving! Add a chalice lighting to your Thanksgiving rituals. Choose one from below, use your personal favorite chalice lighting, or create one as a family! After lighting your chalice, consider going around the table and sharing something for which you are thankful.
Here is a Harvest Basket coloring sheet to print.
CHALICE LIGHTINGS AND PRAYERS
A Thanksgiving Blessing
Let us join hands and hearts in gratitude on this wondrous day*, where we have the abundance of our lives before us.
We remember, on this day of bounty, all those who do not have enough, who are afraid, who are lonely, and who suffer.
We wish for the abundance of this world to be shared, for fear to become love,
for the lonely to feel welcomed, and for the suffering to know rest and joy.
For the labor, the love, the care that gave us the delights of this and every day, we say "thanks!"
For the nourishment of our spirit, the challenges that strengthen us, and the friends we have on the journey, we sing "thanks!"
For all that is our lives, for these good gifts, we whisper, "thanks!"
Overflowing with gratitude, let us shout, "thanks!" Amen.
By Naomi King
*You can change the beginning to fit your needs.
We light our chalice in gratitutde...
We give thanks on this wonderous day...
As we light our chalice we
Praise workers laboring hard in their fields,
May sun and moon increase their yields,
May the soil be blessed by falling silver rains,
As we offer thanks to Mother Earth again.
by Dan Harper
As we light our chalice we give thanks
For food in a world where many walk in hunger,
faith in a world where many walk in fear,
friends in a world where many walk alone.
From Seven Days in Utopia,
directed by Matthew Dean Russell adapted
Loving spirit be our guest.
Dine with us, share our bread
That our table might be blessed
And our souls be fed.
We lift our hearts in thanks today
for all the gifts of life.
by Percival Chubb
T IS FOR TURKEY AND TOFU
Consider breaking this up into pieces so everyone at the table can have a part to say.
T... starts out with Turkey and with Tofu, and Together,
H...reminds us of Happiness, may it grow beyond all measure.
A...means All who are gathered here,
N...for new friends and new family members who have joined us on our journey,
K...for Kind people we have encountered this year,
S... means Surely you'll have fun, but you won't get thinner!
G...is Generosity, to share what we've been given,
I... for Integrity, may we bring it to our living.
V...is Very special day, because of each one here. . .
I... we give thanks for Individuals, for each one is so dear.
N...stands for this Nation, and its challenges and strength
G...reminds us of our blessings and calls us to Give Thanks.
By Maureen Killoran adapted
Help Me to Remember
Spirit of Life and Love,
When I have food, help me to remember the hungry.
When I have work, help me to remember the jobless.
When I have a home, help me to remember those who have no home at all.
When I am without pain, help me to remember those who suffer.
And remembering, help me to destroy my complacency, bestir my compassion,
and be concerned enough to help, by word and deed,
those who cry out for what we take for granted.
Amen.
by Samuel F. Pugh
We Thank Thee
For flowers that bloom about our feet,
We give thanks.
For tender grass so fresh, so sweet,
We give thanks.
For the song of bird and hum of bee,
For all things fair we hear or see,
We give thanks.
For blue of stream and blue of sky,
We give thanks.
For pleasant shade of branches high,
We give thanks.
For fragrant air and cooling breeze,
For beauty of the blooming trees,
We give thanks.
For this new morning with its light,
We give thanks.
For rest and shelter of the night,
We give thanks.
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything good the universe sends,
We give thanks.
By Ralph Waldo Emerson - adapted
GRATEFUL FOR CREATURES FROM A TO Z
Consider breaking this up into pieces so everyone at the table can have a part to say. Alternatively, assign each guest letters of the alphabet and have them come up with things to give thanks for.
We give thanks for the earth and its creatures
and are grateful from A to Z:
For alligators, apricots, acorns and apple trees;
For bumblebees, bananas, blueberries and beagles;
Coconuts, crawdads, cornfields and coffee;
Daisies, elephants, and flying fish;
For groundhog, glaciers and grasslands;
Hippos and hazelnuts, icicles and iguanas;
For juniper, jackrabbits and june bugs;
Kudzo and kangaroos, lightning bugs and licorice;
For mountains and milkweed and mistletoe;
Narwhals and nasturtiums, otters and ocelots;
For peonies and persimmons and polar bears;
Quahogs and Queen Anne's Lace;
For raspberries and roses;
Salmon and sassafras, tornadoes and tulipwood;
Urchins and valleys and waterfalls;
Yaks and yams and yogurt.
We are grateful, good Earth, not least of all,
For zinnias, zucchini, and zebras,
And for the alphabet of wonderful things
that are simple as ABC.
Source of Life,
We have gathered around this table in the spirit of gratitude…
For the innumerable gifts that bless our daily living,
We are thankful.
We give thanks for the great gifts of relationship and love,
For this family (and these friends),
And those who we wish could be here with us…
We give thanks for the land that has produced the bounty of this harvest season,
For the abundance set before us,
And for the hands that lovingly prepared this meal for us to share.
We are awed by the beauty and mystery of the earth and the
sky, and by the cycle of life of which we are a part.
We marvel at the ingenuity and possibility of humankind,
And hold out hope
That we will realize a world made fair,
With all her people one.
Not only on this day, but especially on this day,
We offer our appreciation for these blessings,
And so many others…
Through our words,
and through the deeds of our living,
May we give thanks.
Amen.