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Dear Lord, on this Thanksgiving Day, let this dinner stand as a symbol of all the blessings you have given us this year.
Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful turkey, reminding us that you always provide.
Thank you for the potatoes, a fruit of the earth, and for the cranberry sauce, which is sour but sweet like life.
Thank you for the pumpkin pie, an American fruit in a European shell, a symbol of our country.
Thank you most of all for the love of all of those gathered at this table.
Dear Lord, we ask that you bless America on this Thanksgiving Day through the intercession of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, patron saint of Native Americans, and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, born in America as it became a nation. Please protect the freedom so many Americans died for, especially the freedom of religion, and give us the grace to tirelessly serve the poor.
Tom Hoopes, author of The Rosary of Saint John Paul II and The Fatima Family Handbook, is writer in residence at Benedictine College in Kansas and hosts The Extraordinary Story podcast about the life of Christ. A former reporter in the Washington, D.C., area, he served as press secretary of the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee Chairman and spent 10 years as executive editor of the National Catholic Register newspaper and Faith & Family magazine. His work frequently appears in Catholic publications such as Aleteia.org and the Register. He and his wife, April, have nine children and live in Atchison, Kansas.
