Life on the Chrism Trail

Homily for Thanksgiving Day

November 28, 2024
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Sirach 50:22-24
Psalm 145:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Luke 17:11-19

Amidst the violence and destruction of the American Civil War in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation establishing Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday. He wrote, “No human counsel hath devised nor any mortal hand worked out these great blessings. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged with one heart and voice by the whole American People … that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to God for singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation.”

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Homily for Thanksgiving Day

November 23, 2023
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Sirach 50:22-24
Psalm 145:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11
First Corinthians 1:3-9
Luke 17:11-19

We are very familiar with the story of the healing of the ten lepers by Jesus. We remember that the only one to return to thank Jesus is the Samaritan, while those who do not return to Jesus with gratitude are Jesus’ own people. Perhaps our routine familiarity with this story might cause us to overlook the deeper message of this story, that is, that the gifts of God to us prompt us not merely to cherish the gifts but also to cherish the giver.

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Homily for Thanksgiving Day

November 25, 2021
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Sirach 50:22-24
Psalm 145:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Luke 17:11-19

Amidst the violence and destruction of the American Civil War in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation establishing Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday. He wrote, “No human counsel hath devised nor any mortal hand worked out these great blessings. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”

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Homily for Thanksgiving Day

November 26, 2020
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Sirach 50:22-24
Psalm 138:1-2a, 2bc-3, 4-5
Colossians 3:12-17
Luke 1:39-55

John’s leap was no ordinary movement of an unborn child, for in the words of Saint Elizabeth to the Blessed Virgin Mary, “as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.”

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