In a few days, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day and you probably are thinking about what foods to prepare for your table for your family and friends. Foods like roasted turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, candied yams and pumpkin pie. They say these are the traditional foods served on Thanksgiving Day and it just would not be Thanksgiving without them. But do these particular foods really matter on Thanksgiving Day? Or has it just become part of a tradition that without having them, your Thanksgiving Day would be incomplete? I believe that more than the food, what is important on Thanksgiving Day is the idea of gratitude; gratitude to God for having another year to celebrate Thanksgiving Day, even in a simple way; gratitude to God for the many blessings He continually bestows upon us; gratitude that we have somebody to share and celebrate with us: our family and friends. And the best expression of gratitude to God is when we go to mass as a family on Thanksgiving Day and afterwards, eat together at the table as a family while we recite a prayer before our meal. And here is just a short prayer we can pray:
Lord, we thank you for the food we are about to eat, For those who are here to share these blessings. For your generosity for making this possible again for us. Bless us and those who are in our hearts, And all those who are not as fortunate on this day. Amen.
On the other hand, as a parish we congratulate our 8th graders who made their confirmation this past Friday at Christ the King Parish, Leechburg. Our bishop, Most Rev. Edward C. Malesic, JCL administered the sacrament of Confirmation to them along with other candidates from St. James the Great Parish, Apollo, partnered parishes of St. Gertrude Parish, Vandergrift, and Christ the King Parish in Leechburg. The 8th graders from our parish are the following:
Tyler Asti Alexandra Lasko
Madison Bachar Riley Otterman
Akina Boynton Matthew Pascucci
Alice Brestensky Sarah Shepherd
Mason DeMeno Amber Shirey
Hadley Hellgren Jackson Smetak
Caleb Hoffman Olivia Sutara
Kathryn Huth Natalie Volek
Jacob Kristine Abigail Watson