This Is My Song

This is my song, O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
and skies are ev'rywhere as blue as mine.
So hear my song, O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for their land and for mine.

This is my prayer, O God of all earth's kingdoms,
your kingdom come; on earth your will be done.
O God, be lifted up till all shall serve you,
and hearts united learn to live as one.
So hear my prayer, O God of all the nations;
myself I give you; let your will be done.

Text: Lloyd Stone, 1912-1993, sts. 1-2; Georgia Harkness, 1891-1974, st. 3
Text sts. 1-2 © 1934, 1962 Lorenz Publishing Company. Text st. 3 © 1964 Lorenz Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

A Prayer for Friends

 I want to thank you, Gracious Lord,    
for the good friends you give me;    
they are for me a priceless bounty.
Thanks to them, friendship is neither an abstraction,    
nor a distant, almost impossible, dream.
I owe to your providence, Lord,    
the possibiltiy of counting on    
the constant help of friends.
Between me and them you have formed a solid bridge,    
which can withstand all threats of destruction.
The happiness with which you have blessed us    
enables us to enrich one another.
Lord, there was something astonishing,    
almost mysterious,    
in the way I met my friends;    
it was always outside the expected pattern.
But you alone know the reasons    
that drew us closer together.
This surprise and joy are refreshing,    
and I experience them anew    
at every step of my life.
Not all proved to be steadfast friends,    
but I have to thank you    
for the faithful ones.
I promise to do everything in my power    
to deserve this precious gift    
that you have reserved for me.
I ask you, Gracious Lord, to keep them safe in your hands,    
for they are yours above all.
Amen.

From the Catholic Prayer Community, Ithaca College, New York

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Prayer For Harvest and Thanksgiving

O God, source and giver of all things,
You manifest your infinite majesty, power and goodness
In the earth about us:
We give you honor and glory.
For the sun and the rain,
For the manifold fruits of our fields:
For the increase of our herds and flocks,
We thank you.
For the enrichment of our souls with divine grace,
We are grateful.

Supreme Lord of the harvest,
Graciously accept us and the fruits of our toil,
In union with Jesus, your Son,
As atonement for our sins,
For the growth of your Church,
For peace and love in our homes,
And for salvation for all.
We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

prayer of thanksgiving

i thank You God for most this amazing day:

for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;

and for everything which is natural

which is infinite

which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth

day of life and love and wings: and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any-

lifted from the no of all nothing-

human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

e e cummings