THANKSGIVING DAY OR HARVEST

PRELUDE

The Service may begin with a Chorale, an Introit, a Processional Hymn, or Opening Sentences.

SENTENCES, one or more to be read by the Minister.

O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever. Psalm CVI: 1.

Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the Lord he is God:
It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves:
We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,
And into his courts with praise. Psalm C: 2-4.

Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving;
Who covereth the heaven with clouds,
Who prepareth rain for the earth,
Who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains;
He giveth to the beast his food,
And to the young ravens which cry. Psalm CXLVII: 7-9.

I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and they shall know that I am the Lord. Ezekiel XXXIV: 26, 27.

The Lord shall give that which is good;
And our land shall yield her increase.
Righteousness shall go before him,
And shall set us in the way of his steps. Psalm LXXXV: 12, 13.

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness.
The pastures are clothed with flocks;
The valleys also are covered over with corn;
They shout for joy, they also sing. Psalm LXV; 11, 13.

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle,
And herb for the service of man:
That he may bring forth food out of the earth. Psalm CIV: 14.

Let the peoples praise thee, O God:
Let all the peoples praise thee.
Then shall the earth yield her increase;
And God, even our own God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. Psalm LXVII: 5-7.

The Lord is good to all,
And his tender mercies are over all his works.
The eyes of all wait upon thee;
Thou openest thine hand,
And thou givest them their meat in due season.
And satisfiest the desire of every living thing. Psalm CXLV: 9, 15, 16.

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem,
Praise thy God, O Zion.
For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates:
He hath blessed thy children within thee.
He maketh peace in thy borders:
He filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. Psalm CXLVII: 12-14.

EXHORTATION, by the Minister:

Let us draw nigh unto God, and make our prayer to him, in thankful remembrance for all his goodness and mercy, and in sorrow for our own unfaithfulness. Let us bow down before him with lowly reverence, and lift up our souls in grateful and adoring love. And may our prayer bring us so truly into his presence that we may find him nearer to us in all our days, to guide, to strengthen, and to bless.

INVOCATION, by the Minister:

Let us pray.
O Lord our God, who hast bidden the light to shine out of darkness, who hast again wakened us to praise thy goodness and ask for thy grace: accept now, in thine endless mercy, the sacrifice of our worship and thanksgiving, and grant unto us such of our desires as may be wholesome for us. Make us to be children of the light and of the day, and heirs of thine everlasting inheritance. Remember, O Lord, according to the multitude of thy mercies, thy whole church: all who join with us in prayer; all our brethren by land and sea, or wherever they may be in thy vast kingdom, who stand in need of thy grace and succor. Pour out upon all the riches of thy mercy, and we will ever praise thy glorious name. Amen.

Prayer to be said by the Minister and people:

Almighty and Eternal God, who searchest the hearts of men, we acknowledge and confess that we have sinned against thee in thought, word and deed: that we have not loved thee with all our heart and soul, with all our mind and strength: and that we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. Help us, we pray thee, to blot out our misdeeds and to amend what we are; and of thine eternal goodness direct what we shall be, so that we may henceforth walk in the way of thy commandments, and do those things which are worthy in thy sight. Amen.

Then may be said the Lord’s Prayer, the people joining.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

O Lord, open thou our lips.
And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.
Praise ye the Lord
The Lord’s name be praised.

HYMN, CANTICLE or ANTHEM

RESPONSIVE READING

ASCRIPTION, to be said or sung.

Blessed be the Lord, our God; who only do-eth won-drous things.
And blessed be his glo-rious name, Forever and ev-er.

FIRST LESSON

CHANT, if desired.

SECOND LESSON, if desired.

The Minister may then say,
Here endeth the reading of the lesson.
The Lord be with you
And with thy spirit.
Let us pray. O Lord, show thy mercy upon us;
And grant us thy salvation.
O God, make clean our hearts within us.
And take not thy holy Spirit from us.

Then may follow a period of silent meditation, after which the Minister may read the Litany, the people responding, and one or more of the following or other suitable prayers, or may offer prayer in his own words.

LITANY

O God, our heavenly Father, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift: we lift up to thee the voice of our thanksgiving. For the life which thou hast given us, and the service to which thou hast appointed us; for the knowledge of thy will, and the inspiration of thy love:
We praise thee, O our God.
For the revealing of thy presence in nature, and the tokens of thy wisdom and power, in the least as in the greatest; for every moment of nearer communion with thy Spirit in all that is fair and glorious in the world:
We praise thee, O our God.
For thy holy word of righteousness and truth, spoken by the wise and good in every age, made manifest in noble and saintly lives:
We praise thee, O our God.
For the work we have strength to do, for the truth we have insight to learn; for whatever good there has been in our past lives, and for the hopes which lead us on toward better things:
We praise thee, O our God.
For the high purposes of right that capture the hearts of youth and gather men of good will to prepare and promote a nobler common good:
We praise thee, O God, who maketh all things new.
For the power to rise above discouragement and defeat when we are oppressed by care and our spirits fail and our way is darkened; and for the love which bids us turn to thee:
We praise and bless thy holy name.
Make us ever more worthy of thy mercies, as we ourselves show mercy to our brethren.
As all have received thy gifts, even so help us to minister the same, that we may be good stewards of thy manifold grace. Amen.

PRAYERS

O Lord God, Father of mercies, the Fountain of comfort and blessing, who fillest heaven with thy glory, and earth with thy goodness: we offer thee most earnest and humble thanks for the gifts of nature and of grace, the support of every moment, and the comforts of every day. We beseech thee to fill our hearts with thy praise; that our thankfulness to thee may be as great as our needs, and that thy grace may so strengthen our purposes that our lives may be a thank-offering to thee, unto whom we ascribe all honor and glory. Amen.

Most gracious and loving Father: thou hast opened the hand of thy bounty, to fill our lives with blessing. Thou dost shelter us in the arms of thy mercy; thou providest for us perpetually, and lovest us with an unfailing love. As thou hast laid thine hand upon us in blessing, so fill our hearts with thankfulness, and tune our lips to praise. Grant that what thou hast sown in mercy may spring up in duty; and let thy grace so strengthen our good purposes that we may walk in the light of thy favor, and in the paths of thy commandments, now and for evermore. Amen.

We bring today our joyful thanksgiving for all the increase that the fertile earth has yielded. Whether we toil or rest, whether we wake or sleep, we are upheld by a Life that forever makes all things new and by a Law that never fails. We remember in this our prayer all those who plow the fields and sow the seed, who cultivate the rows of growing herbs and gather in the harvest. We would be mindful of the mutual dependence of all the members of the great family of man. We would learn how to take a useful part in the world’s life. May we never be satisfied to enjoy plenty so long as any are in want. May we express our gratitude for nature’s gifts not in words alone, but also in the high purposes for which we live and in the kindliness of our deeds. Amen.

O Thou, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things, both in heaven and on earth: we praise thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks unto thee for all thou art to us, and all thou doest for us, day by day. For reason and conscience, for nurture and guidance, and for all the gifts of nature and of grace; for thy forbearance and longsuffering, and thy tender mercies which never fail; for all good things received, and for thy promise, and our hope of good in time to come; for these and all other mercies, known or unknown, remembered or forgotten, we will give thanks unto thee now and evermore. Amen.

Almighty God, beneath whose guiding hand our fathers crossed the sea, that they might worship thee in spirit and in truth and might build in the wilderness a city of habitation where thy righteous will should be law; unto thee do we, their children, turn to ask thy continuing guidance and thy sustaining grace. We pray that as thou didst strengthen their hearts with daring and fortitude, so thou wouldst confirm in us their faithful labors, their high vision, their holy purpose. Grant us so to live that the generations to come may find their memorial not alone in graven tablets, but may read it in the living record of an active faith, an unswerving. loyalty to truth, a self-forgetting service of mankind. Be this the gift of thy grace bestowed upon us; be this the memorial of the just, transmitted to their children’s children through the long centuries to come. Amen.

Lord of all, whose balance trieth the nations, to lift up or to cast down; thou hast planted us, as a people, in quiet resting places, and stretched out our borders from sea to sea, and laid upon us a mighty trust. Never through vain conceit may we be blind to the unchanging conditions of thy blessing. The world and its fullness are thine; our portion thereof may we hold, not in wanton self—will, but reverently, as of thee; making it the stronghold of right, the refuge of the oppressed, and the moderator of lawless ambition. Grant true wisdom and understanding to the President, Vice President and Congress of the United States, to the Governor of this Commonwealth, and to all others in authority. Make all who speak or act for this nation true organs of thine equity, that through their wisdom and faithfulness thou mayst be our Lawgiver and Judge. And let it be that, as with the people so with the chiefs, as with the servants so with the master, as with the buyer so with the seller, all may know thee as weighing the path of the just; that righteousness may be the girdle of our power. Amen.

Then may follow a period of silence, an organ interlude, or the following chant.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts:
Heaven and earth are full of thy glory.
Glory be to thee, O Lord most high. Amen.

OFFERTORY, during which an anthem may be sung.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

HYMN

SERMON

PRAYER

HYMN

BENEDICTION

POSTLUDE