I don’t know about you, but I love Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving for me is filled with warm memories and good memories and fuzzy memories.  First of all, there is the memory of the first Thanksgiving.  Some of it may be legend, but at the heart of it we know they were immigrant people, foreigners like the Samaritan in the Gospel.  Immigrants.  And the natives welcomed them and helped them and celebrated with them; and they had much to celebrate and be thankful for on the first Thanksgiving because they had been through hard times. 
Those of us who through our lifetime have been through hard times can appreciate that.  Something to give thanks for and great promise.  Promise of freedom, promise of opportunity, promise of peace and at times that promise over the plus 300 years has been betrayed or we feel that the promise is still there and so strong.  Good memories of that.  But most of all my Thanksgiving memories are of Thanksgiving Days as I was growing up.  Now when I was growing up it was a little different because for Thanksgiving Day there were no computers around.  In fact, there was no television and, you will not believe this, there was no football on Thanksgiving Day.  How could they have Thanksgiving without football.  But in those days they did.  And my memories include first of all turkey.  I love turkey.  I love the turkey dressing.  I love the cranberry jell-o my mother prepared.  This was pre-Martha Stewart.  None of the berry business.  This is jell-o where you can see the lines that the cans had made on it.  (Laughter)  Wonderful!!  And then especially we look forward to cold turkey sandwiches and I was thinking, why did we look forward to it so much?  The reason we did, in those days we gave up meat on Friday, so you couldn’t touch it until Saturday.  So your mouth watered until Saturday and you finally got that cold turkey sandwich.  So there was personal memories of turkey, personal memories of extended family.  It was one of the times during the year where we gathered, not just the immediate family but all sorts of people.  My memory is first of all there was always one or two ex-prizefighters at the dinner table with us.  There was always one or two bartenders.  There was always one or two people who were out of work.  There were always lots and lots of cousins from Ireland.  And once, I remember this clearly, one of them was here legally.  (Huge laughter)  There were neighbors we had met at Church.  I frankly remember two years in a row where we had a couple always visiting us and had wonderful times together and all the time the husband was bumming money off my father to keep his drug habit going.  So it was quite a mix of people, but anyone who was connected, anyone who fed us, anyone who raised us, anyone who loved us.  Those are great memories of Thanksgiving Day.
We also have memories as a  nation because this is also a National Holiday; and, we remember as a nation when we celebrate this Thanksgiving Day good times and hard times.  We remember this nation went through a great depression and we have echoes of it today.  This nation went through a World War and we have echoes of war today.  This nation has gone through years of peace and patriotism and also years of dissent and division.  We have memories and we have challenges.  As we gather for this Thanksgiving we think of immigrants again.  This time not Pilgrims but people from other lands and other shores who may or may not be made welcome.  We think of people undergoing foreclosures and lay-offs and economic hard times and how long, how long, how long the lines are now for food.  You’ll notice our seventh grade Religious Ed. classes put posters up remembering the hungry and before you leave today you might want to go and read what our young people have reminded us of.  But also we celebrate Thanksgiving because this is still more than anything else a land of freedom, a land of opportunity, a land of promise and a land of hope.  And I want us to think and pray about that just a little bit now.  I’m going to suggest we spend a little quiet time thinking of blessings in our life, then we are going to spend a little short time sharing about that and then praying about it before we gather around our Thanksgiving table, our Eucharist table, for this Thanksgiving Day.  So we take a few moments to remember what we are thankful for.  Let’s put it in three categories for ourselves and for a few moments. 
Think in quiet now what you are thankful for about our nation despite disagreements and despite the fact we are divided at times.  What about our nation are you thankful for?  Think about that just for a moment.
And secondly, about our Church despite the fact at time that it is embarrassing to us and upsets us, but at the same time what are we thankful for, what are we grateful for.  Take a few moments to think about that.  What am I thankful for about my Church, my Parish Church and the Catholic Church.
And the final area is our personal life, our families and friends.  Sometimes they can be difficult.  Sometimes they’re distant.  But take a few moments and think about in your personal life and family and friends what are you now most thankful for.

rjs