Dear Friends,
This Thursday, our nation celebrates Thanksgiving.
That day, prior to the main meal, talk with your family, and agree if possible to acknowledge as you gather, that the land which we call home has a rich history of belonging to others long before us: The Navajo, Wampanaug, Houma and Chinook, the Lakota Sioux and the Cherokee, who walked a trail of tears from Georgia to Oklahoma because they were unwanted in the east.
Remember the Ute and Pueblo, the Shinnecock of Long Island and the Seneca Nation of Canandaigua NY, the Keepers of the Western Door. All indigenous nations.
As the Hopi told us:
That day, prior to the main meal, talk with your family, and agree if possible to acknowledge as you gather, that the land which we call home has a rich history of belonging to others long before us: The Navajo, Wampanaug, Houma and Chinook, the Lakota Sioux and the Cherokee, who walked a trail of tears from Georgia to Oklahoma because they were unwanted in the east.
Remember the Ute and Pueblo, the Shinnecock of Long Island and the Seneca Nation of Canandaigua NY, the Keepers of the Western Door. All indigenous nations.
As the Hopi told us:
“Gather yourselves.
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we now do must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
For we are the ones we have been waiting for.”
Rejecting the animosity in our world, let us instead embrace all in our world and pray this Thanksgiving prayer composed by the First Nation of Canada, the Mi ‘Kmaq:
“Creator, open our hearts to peace and healing among all people.
Creator, open our hearts to provide for and protect all children of the earth.
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we now do must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
For we are the ones we have been waiting for.”
Rejecting the animosity in our world, let us instead embrace all in our world and pray this Thanksgiving prayer composed by the First Nation of Canada, the Mi ‘Kmaq:
“Creator, open our hearts to peace and healing among all people.
Creator, open our hearts to provide for and protect all children of the earth.
Creator, open our hearts to respect the earth and all the gifts of the earth.
Creator, open our hearts to end exclusion, violence, and fear among all.
Thank you for this day and every day.”
~ Sister Joan Sobala
Creator, open our hearts to end exclusion, violence, and fear among all.
Thank you for this day and every day.”
May Thanksgiving refresh your mind,
heart and all your relationships.
May Our Lord open our eyes
so that we may carry forward the works that enliven and give hope.
~ Sister Joan Sobala
