Collects, Epistles, and
Gospels
for Holy Days
Thanksgiving Day
INTROIT. Citavit eos. Ps. 81.
HE fed them also with the finest wheat flour: and with honey
from the rock hath he satisfied them. Ps. ibid. Sing we
merrily unto God our strength: make a cheerful noise unto the
God of Jacob. V. Glory be.
COLLECT.
O MOST merciful Father, who hast blessed the labours of the husbandman
in the returns of the fruits of the earth; We give thee humble
and hearty thanks for this thy bounty; beseeching thee to continue
thy loving-kindness to us, that our land may still yield her
increase, to thy glory and our comfort; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.
EPISTLE. James 1:16-27
16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and
cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning.
18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we
should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to
hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness,
and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to
save your souls.
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving
your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is
like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway
forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth
therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work,
this man shall be blessed in his deed.
26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not
his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion
is vain.
27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,
To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to
keep himself unspotted from the world.
GRADUAL. Ps. 145. The eyes of all wait upon
thee, O Lord: and thou givest them their meat in due season.
V. Thou openest think hand: and fillest all things living with
plenteousness.
Alleluia, alleluia. V. Ps. 147. O praise the Lord, for
it is a good thing to sing praises unto our God; yea, a joyful
and pleasant thing it is to be thankful, alleluia.
GOSPEL. St Matthew 6:25-34
25 AT that time: Jesus said; Take no
thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life
more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do
they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his
stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of
the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which
today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or,
What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your
heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof.
The creed is said.
OFFERTORY. Ps. 147. O sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving: sing
praises upon the harp unto our God.
SECRET.
WE beseech thee, O Lord, give us a just sense of these and all
thy great mercies: such as may appear in our lives by an humble,
holy, and obedient walking before thee all our days. Through.
COMMUNION.
Ps. 147. Praise the
Lord, O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Sion. For he hath made fast
the bars of thy gates: and hath blessed thy children within thee.
He maketh peace in thy borders: and filleth thee with the flour
of wheat.
POSTCOMMUNION.
MOST gracious God, by whose knowledge the depths are broken up
and the clouds drop down the dew: we yield thee unfeigned thanks
and praise for the return of seed-time and harvest, for the increase
of the ground and the gathering in of the fruits thereof; and
for all the other blessings of thy merciful providence bestowed
upon this nation and people. Through.
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