Giving Thanks

One way we can show thanks is by sharing with people in need.  This past Sunday, our children heard about the work of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.  The UUSC partners with organizations around the world to provide food, shelter, and other emergency supplies.  Next Sunday we will distribute boxes to collect money for the Guest at Your Table project.  To participate, take home a box and keep it on your table.  When you sit down to eat, contribute coins to the box, remembering those around the world who need help.

In my column in the Scroll last month I'd promised to post some table graces.  I  didn't get them up before Thanksgiving, but perhaps you'd like to add a table grace to your dinner routine this month, or try out a new one.  The six graces below come from our six sources, and can also be found at:  http://www.uua.org/documents/uuworld/families/09_winter.pdf

Thank you, Great Spirit, for the roof over our

heads, for being together, for all the food we eat.

—Unitarian Universalist blessing inspired by Earth-centered traditions

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything your goodness sends,

Thank you!

—Adapted from a grace of Ralph Waldo Emerson by the

Rev. Phil Lund, sung to the tune of “Praise God

from Whom All Blessings Flow”

Hamotzi lechem

min ha’aretz,

we give thanks

to God for bread.

—Jewish blessing

For seeds—that, like memories and minds, keep

in themselves the recollection of what they were

and the power to become something more than

they are…

—From “Gratitude for the Garden” by the Rev. Max Coots

Loving spirit be our guest.

Dine with us, share our bread

That our table might be blessed

And our souls be fed.

—By the Rev. Gary Kowalski, sung to the tune of

“Mary Had a Little Lamb”

We receive this food in gratitude to all beings

Who have helped to bring it to our table,

And vow to respond in turn to those in need

With wisdom and compassion.

—Buddhist mealtime blessing