English 
Chinese 
Dutch 
Arabic 
Spanish 
Portuguese 
Russian 
French 
Italian 
German 
Japanese 
Continue reading with a subscription
Get unlimited access to all our premium content and exclusive features.
Enjoy unlimited access, cancel anytime.
Summary
- The General Thanksgiving, written by Bishop Edward Reynolds and added to the Book of Common Prayer in 1662, thanks God “for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life.”
- The 1928 Book of Common Prayer also has a morning and an evening thanksgiving for families and two graces before meals; the 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers gives a grace after meals and an act of thanksgiving.
- The Russian Orthodox Service of Thanksgiving, or thanksgiving moleben, includes the hymn “We, thine unworthy servants, O Lord,” and its Gospel is the healing of the ten lepers (Luke 17:12–19).
- Twelve short prayers cover waking, the end of the day, meals, work and home, an answered prayer, family and friends, a hard season, days without feeling thankful, forgiveness, the Bible, creation and faith in Christ.
- Scripture asks for thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18; Ephesians 5:20), and John Chrysostom died in exile in 407 saying “Glory be to God for all things.”
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Deuteronomy 8:10; Job 1:21; Psalm 4:8; 19:1; 103:2; 119:105; 136:1; Lamentations 3:22–23; Habakkuk 3:18; Matthew 6:33; Luke 17:15–17; John 6:11; 2 Corinthians 9:15; Ephesians 5:20; Philippians 1:3; 4:6; Colossians 3:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:18; Hebrews 13:5; 1 John 1:9; 3:1). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Morning Prayer, “A General Thanksgiving,” p. 19; Family Prayer, “Acknowledgment of God’s Mercy and Preservation, especially through the Night past,” p. 587, “The Thanksgiving,” p. 591, and “Grace before Meat,” p. 600. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Procter, Francis, and Walter Howard Frere. A New History of the Book of Common Prayer. London: Macmillan, 1907, p. 428 (the General Thanksgiving “composed by Bishop Reynolds” and added at the 1662 revision). https://archive.org/details/newhistoryofbook00proc
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. “Grace before Meals” and “Grace after Meals,” p. 58; “Act of Thanksgiving,” pp. 462–463. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. “A Service of Thanksgiving for an Answer to Prayer, and for Every Favour from God,” pp. 512–518. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf ; also https://archive.org/details/cu31924029363128
- “Молебны и Тропари.” FatherAlexander.org (Church Slavonic text of the thanksgiving troparion, tone 4). https://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/russian/molebny_tropary.htm
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraph 1328. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3Y.HTM
- Baur, Chrysostom. “St. John Chrysostom.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08452b.htm
Leave a Reply