A Thanksgiving Blessing/Prayer

A Thanksgiving Prayer

Loving Light that surrounds us,
and that lives quietly within us…
Source of all things…
God who goes by many names…
we gather gratefully around this beautiful meal.

We pause our busy, beautiful lives, just this moment,
to open our hearts with gratitude.

We give thanks not only for what we have, 
but for who we are to one another.

May we hold, in a deeply shared blessing…

Those at our left, our right, and all around this table;
may we embrace them with our whole hearts.

Those who once sat at tables that now exist only in memory;
the ones whose laughter still echoes,
and the ones whose wisdom still lives quietly within us —
we celebrate their stories and honor their absence.

Those we encountered for the first time this year;
the ones who shaped our journey in ways we never expected —
we give thanks for how they widened our understanding of the world.

And those who will shape us in the year to come;
the ones who will surprise us into becoming new versions of ourselves —
may they open our eyes and hearts in ways we can already feel stirring.

We honor the sacred space between us all,
trusting that the divine togetherness we share
is shaping us still.

Loving God,
Bless the hands that prepared this food.
Bless the hearts that came to this table carrying
grief, hope, exhaustion, celebration, uncertainty,
and everything in between.

Bless those we love who are far from us.
Bless those we miss.
Bless those we struggle to understand.
Bless those who have no table to gather around today.

And bless us…
that we may walk away from this meal
a little more whole,
a little more connected,
a little more awake
to the sacredness of one another.

For all this and for all the unspoken prayers on our hearts,
we whisper…

Amen.