Giving Thanks
Chaplains Refection for November
Deacon Kevin Reid
Here in the United States and also in Canada where they celebrate it on a different day we both celebrate Thanksgiving, a unique Holiday that some say may have started back with the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.
They had come to America seeking an opportunity to practice their Puritan Faith with out fear of Persecution. Most of us have learned the story of the Pilgrims and the ship that they arrived on the "Mayflower".
What most people do not know is how much they suffered in that first year of being there in Plymouth MA, it was much colder and more harsh then they had expected it to be. The winter was cold and severe and many of them perished in that year of being in their new "promised land" yet they had faith like Jesus described when he spoke of having faith the size of a mustard seed and that anything could be accomplished if we believed in the saving power of Jesus Christ.
Imagine leaving the security of your home and journeying to a new and distant land in search of a New Jerusalem. No radios or radar to guide you, cramped,cold and weary from the journey but yet filled with faith and praying ceaselessly.
Well I am sure that at first it must have seemed like God was not listening to their petitions, after all so many were dying and life was so much harder here then it was back for them in England.
And yet they never gave up praying or in believing, it is upon the shoulders of these Pilgrims and their sacrifices that we ourselves have continued the good work that these Pilgrims started.
Any one is now free to worship here in America to what ever God that they choose and in what ever faith tradition they claim for themselves.
We in Maryland are part of the original Catholic State the home of the Premier See in the United States, the first diocese in this new "promised land". Our church has grown beyond the dreams of Bishop Carroll, he probably never could imagine that one day five Catholics would sit on the Supreme Court, that a Catholic would be elected President and that there would be so many more dioceses around the US that would be formed.
We Catholics once endured hardship for our faith, but our faith was stronger then the hate that was once directed towards any Catholic that tried to get ahead.
Our Catholic ancestors were not unlike the Pilgrims in the fact that they overcame what ever it was that came at them and that God provided them with a way not only to get by, but in fact to flourish.
Our school system educated generations of Catholics and gave them the tools to get bout of the low level jobs that they once had and to build a better life for their children.
I heard the other day that for many the American Dream is dying, I suggest that they are dead wrong. The American dream ha s never been easy, and we stand on the shoulders of brave Catholics like Father Michael McGiviney and Bishop Fulton Sheen and so many others who have given us such great examples of faith filled lives to be role models for the rest of us to emulate.
We have a responsibility to keep the dream alive to our children by being examples as Knights, as fathers and as Catholic gentlemen. We have the examples of so many good men and women to give thanks for and for us to "carry on" what they have started to fight the good fight as Saint Paul teaches us, we are still a Pilgrim People on our way to the Promised Land.
For that Grace my Brothers let us be thankful and may we also continue the good work begun in Christ Jesus in establishing the Kingdom of God here on Earth.
For that amazing grace that we are so blessed with, let us come together with glad and grateful hearts and "Give Thanks".
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