Let us pray* and give thanks.
Source of All Goodness,
from whom comes each good gift of life,
we remember your loving-kindness and uncounted mercies
as we join in gratitude.
For all your gifts to us and to our human race;
for our life and the world in which we live,
we give thanks.
For the order and constancy of nature;
for the beauty and bounty of the world;
for day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest;
for the varied joys which every season brings,
we give thanks.
For the work we are enabled to do,
and the truth we discover;
for whatever good there has been in our past,
for all the hopes which lead us on toward better things,
we give thanks.
For all the joys and comforts of life;
for our homes and families;
for our friends;
for the love, sympathy and goodwill of persons near and far,
we give thanks.
For all cultures, wise government, and just laws which order our common life;
for education and all the treasures of literature, science, and art,
we give thanks.
For the discipline of life;
for the tasks and trials which train us to know ourselves
and which bring us to accept one another,
we give thanks.
For the desire and power to help others;
for every opportunity of serving our generation in ways large or small,
we give thanks.
For the tender ties which bind us to the unseen world;
for the faith which dispels the shadows of earth
and fills the closing years of life with the light of hope,
we give thanks.
We are all the more mindful of these gifts we have received as we lift up to these concerns among many others we must leave unvoiced:
- the people of Israel and the Gaza Strip, as the last Jewish settlements there are closed;
- the uninsured and underinsured;
- those caught in heavy weather;
- the family and friends of La’Toyia Figueroa, and for her boyfriend Stephen Poaches, accused of her murder;
- those who die in forgotten wars, and those who are sure to die in wars without end;
- all those in need.
And still we find reason to give thanks:
- for justice;
- for those drawn together by celebration;
- for wise men who leave the world on their own terms.
So it is that we lift up to you our words of humble thanks and praise:
- Source of all grace and love,
we have praised you with our lips
for all the richness and meaning that life holds for us.
Now send us into the world to praise you with our lives.