History of the Thanksgiving Mass

 

The First Thanksgiving, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, ca. 1912


This year, we will have celebrate the Mass for Thanksgiving Day at St. Mary's at 9:00 a.m.  Please join us to give thanks to God for the blessings He has bestowed upon our nation and, more importantly, the saving sacrifice of His Son on the Cross.

I'm including a link from a blog on the liturgy (New Liturgical Movement) which dives deep into the history of the Catholic Church and Thanksgiving, all the way back to the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth.  A bit long and detailed, but something to ponder over turkey and dressing this year.

I was particularly interested in the fact that Pope Pius XII celebrated Thanksgiving (and praised the holiday) to the American seminarians in Rome around 1950.  As an aside, there's a really cool picture in the post of Pope Pius in his sedia gestatoria, the portable throne that popes formerly used when they made public appearances.  That was traveling in style!

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