November 22th , 2009
Thanksgiving 2009
It’s most likely, American historians tell us, that the FIRST Thanksgiving celebration was in St. Augustine, Florida, on September 8, 1565. The meal of gratitude was celebrated with Catholic Spaniards and Timucua Indians. Fifty-six years later (our dating of the “traditional” Thanksgiving) a gathering of English immigrants and Wampanoag Indians took place in Plymouth Plantation and no Catholics were allowed. (The “pilgrims” were separatists who desired to create their own spiritual community completely free from any and all ties/semblances to Roman Catholicism and Anglican control.)
I’m sure that neither of the Thanksgiving meals noted above featured pasta on the menu, yet we can be sure that only a few blocks from St. Brigid’s church, trays of ziti will be gracing Thanksgiving tables right next to the turkey.
You see, American Thanksgiving is as rich (and tasty) and as diverse as the people who have come to these shores. And the beauty of this national feast is that this diversity is easily accepted because the importance of this day is not what makes us different, but what makes us one: We are all blessed by God and we all give God thanks for those blessings.
At St Brigid’s we start Thanksgiving day with mass at 9am in the church. The word “eucharist” means “thanksgiving.” So despite the horror the first pilgrims would have felt at the thought of Catholics celebrating Thanksgiving, it is our feast too. And we do it in a lively way with everyone --whether you’re the descendants of the first Spanish explorers or descendants of the native people who lived in North or South America, or whether your ancestors came from Gonaive or Durazzano or Manila, or whether your ancestors were brought here against their will, everyone becomes one at the Eucharistic Thanksgiving table.
Come then and bring your family to begin a day of Thanksgiving. Let’s give thanks for the good things that are happening our parish: the One Thousand Voices mission, the rental of our convent, the spiritual growth of our people, the hundreds of families who prepared Thanksgiving baskets and the hundreds who received them, our love and acceptance of one another.
