Dear Parishioners and Friends,
On Thursday this
week we will celebrate Thanksgiving.
While we usually
think of the first Thanksgiving as being a feast between Native Americans and
the early Puritan settlers, thanksgiving celebrations took place much earlier.
An “acción de gracias” was first celebrated on what is presently American soil
on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida. It was a day of thanksgiving
between the Native Americans and Spanish settlers and it included the
celebration of Mass. Another similar “Thanksgiving” celebration took place on
April 30, 1598 in Texas when Don Juan de Oñate declared a day of Thanksgiving and
it too included the celebration of Mass.
Believe it or
not, Squanto, the Native American man who mediated between the
Pilgrims and the Native Americans, was a Catholic. He had been a slave of the
English but was freed by Spanish Franciscans and received baptism as a
Catholic.
There is so much
for which we need to give thanks. Remember, the Mass is the great act of
thanksgiving any human being can make. At Mass we offer up the fruit of the
earth (bread), vine (wine) and the work of human hands as symbolic of our very
lives. We give thanks to God by offering ourselves and He transforms our meager
offering into His own Body and Blood as our spiritual nourishment.
In Christ,
Msgr. Baker
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