SERVICE SCHEDULE

WEEKDAYS: MONDAY–FRIDAY 9:00AM or 7:00PM TBA

SATURDAY: 9:00AM; 4:00PM (Vigil Sunday-Eng)

SUNDAY: 8:30 AM; 10:30 AM (Ukrainian)

CONFESSIONS are heard before each Divine Liturgy by req. Baptism – Arrangement for baptism to be made Personally at the Parish Office. Please call rectory for an appointment.

Marriage – Arrangements for marriage are to be made at least 6 months prior to the Wedding date. Please call rectory for an appointment.

Sick Calls – To arrange for Sacraments for the elderly and sick at home, please call Parish Office. Please advise the rectory of any hospitalization.

Bulletin Notices – Notices for the bulletin must be e-mailed or in writing by Wednesday @8PM to be included in that week’s bulletin.

Stewardship – Remember St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in your will.

Office hours – by Appointment Only! Please Call 860-525-7823

Special Share in the Eucharist *– bread & wine offered for a day, week, month, or year. Donations: one week - $20. Donors/intentions will be listed.

Eternal Light *– offering to light for a week $10.00. Altar Candles *- offering to light for a week $10.00.

Bulletin Sponsorship* - $5 per week

Ukra=ns;ka Katolyc;ka Cerkva Sv. Arxystratyha Myxa=la

St. Michael The Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church

125-135 Wethersfield Ave., Hartford, CT 06114 Rectory (860)-525-7823; School (860)-547-0858;

E-mail: st_michael@comcast.net (private intentions) contact@smucc.org (general inquiries)

Online Bulletins, Announcements & More: www.smucc.org

Very Rev. Pawlo Martyniuk o. Pavlo Martynqk

Trustees : Julie Nesteruk and Adrian Mishtal Art and Music Directors: Julia Nesteruk and Lesya Rudyk

Children's First Holy Communion Program Director: Irene Bobriwnyk

SLAVA ISUSU XRYSTU! PRAISED BE JESUS CHRIST!

December 1, 2019

25-ta NEDIL| PO ZISLANNI SV|TOHO DUXA 25TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Tone 8 Ap./Ep. Ef./Eph. 4:1-6; Wv./Gospel Lk./Luke. – 10:25-37.

25-ta NEDIL| PO ZISLANNI SV|TOHO DUXA 25TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

8 Ap./Ep Ef./Eph. 4:1- 6; Wv./Gospel Lk./Luke. – 10:25 - 37.

Sat. 11/30 4:00PM Michaylo KOZOWYK – req. by Helen Kucman

Sun. 12/01 8:30AM John ZASTAWSKY – req. by Eva Zastawsky 10:30AM Божественнa Літургія за парафіян і мир в Україні Pomynal;na panaxyda za polehlyx hero[v @Majdanu@ (День Гідності та Свободи відзначався 21-го листопада)

26-ta NEDIL| PO ZISLANNI SV|TOHO DUXA 26TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY Tone 1 Ap./Ep. Ef./Eph. 5:9 -19; Wv./Gospel Lk./Luke. – 12:16 -21.

Sat. 12/07 4:00PM For Parishioners * Pro Populo Sun. 12/08 8:30AM Yurij RUDENSKI – req. Martha Lomaga

10:30AM Божественнa Літургія за парафіян і мир в Україні

27-ta NEDIL| PO ZISLANNI SV|TOHO DUXA 27TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Nedil\ Sv\tyx PRAOTCIV � Sunday of the Holy ANCESTORS Tone 2 Ap./Ep. Kolos\n./Colossians. 3:4 -11; Wv./Gospel Lk./Luke. – 14:16 -24.

Sat. 12/14 4:00PM For Parishioners * Pro Populo Sun. 12/15 8:30AM Anya MYKETEY HANSON,(40th Day Memorial) – req. by Patricia Mokrycki 10:30AM Божественнa Літургія за парафіян і мир в Україні

WELCOME to Our Visitors and Guests

We, welcome you to our community. We are honored and pleased for your participation at the Divine Liturgies. We invite you to raise your hearts, mind and bodies in praise to God. All Catholics may receive Holy Communion. Infants and children of the Eastern Churches(Canon 710) who have received Communion at the time of their Baptism and Chrismation may receive Communion through the faith of their parent(s). Orthodox Faithful may also receive Holy Communion (Canon 671). If you have any question or would like to be part of our community, please kindly see Fr. Pawlo Martyniuk.

� SERDE?NO VITAWMO vsix naшyx parafi\n, `o sv\tkuvatymut; u hrudni mis\ci svo[ imenyny, urodyny ta qvile[. ~yro ba]awmo usim Vam ̀ edryx Bo]yx lask, ̀ astt\, zdorov#\ ta blahopolu//\ na Mnohi[ ta Blahi[ Lita!

12/02 Monday 8:00AM Iwan MENKIW, (1st Anniversary) – req. by Godsons, Joseph Luczka & Peter Zelez

12/03 Tuesday 8:00AM Private Intention 12/04 Wednesday 8:00AM Private Intention 12/05 Thursday 8:00AM Private Intention 12/06 Friday SV. MYKOLA|, ?udotvorc\ * ST. NICHOLAS, Wonderworker

7:00PM Mothers in Prayer 12/07 Saturday 8:00AM Private Intention

12/09 Monday The Conception of the Most Holy Mother of God by Saint Anna

Za/att\ sv\to= Anny, koly za/ala Presv\tu Bohorodycq 8:00AM Private Intention

12/10 Tuesday 8:00AM Private Intention 12/11 Wednesday 8:00AM Private Intention 11/12 Thursday 8:00AM Private Intention 12/13 Friday 8:00AM Private Intention 12/14 Saturday 8:00AM Private Intention

� OUR SINCERE PRAYERS AND WISHES To our parishioners who celebrate their Birthday, Name Day and Anniversary in the month of December. May Our Lord Jesus Christ bestow his blessings of Good Health, Happiness, Peace and Grant You Many Blessed Years to Come!

� NEW CEMETERY SEXTON: We, are pleased to announce that our parishioner Mr. Zenon Szahaj, has accepted the position. Mr. Szahaj will be working with parishioners and the pastor in purchasing plots and at time of funeral, he will coordinate will funeral home directors in staking out plots. You may call Mr. Zenon Szahaj at (860) 205-2940. May our Lord Jesus Christ provide his many Blessings to Zenon for his service to our parish.

� VI?NA LAMPA ETERNAL LIGHT An offering has been made for the Eternal Light to be lit for one (1) week, beginning Sunday, December 1st 2019, through December 7th 2019, in Memory of Victor Dydyn , by Michael Wichkowsky.

� VI?NA LAMPA ETERNAL LIGHT An offering has been made for the Eternal Light to be lit for one (1) week, beginning Sunday, December 8th 2019, through December 14th 2019, in Memory of Andrij, Parania & Oksana Pelech, by Luba & Peter Zelez.

� НАПРЕСТОЛЬНА СВІЧКА ALTAR CANDLE An offering has been made for the Altar Candle Light to be lit for one (1) week, beginning Sunday, December 1st 2019, through December 7th 2019, in Memory of Philemon Saweczka, by Anonymous. � НАПРЕСТОЛЬНА СВІЧКА ALTAR CANDLE An offering has been made for the Altar Candle Light to be lit for one (1) week, beginning Sunday, December 8th 2019, through December 14th 2019, in Memory of Natalya Plesha-Tereschenko, by Luba & Peter Zelez.

YEAR END: As we approach the end of the year you may wish to review your offering envelopes to see if you postponed or overlooked any donations that you want to make up before the books are closed on December 31, 2019. Please keep in mind that checks must be deposited in bank at least five business

days before December 31 to be properly cleared for 2019. (Dec. 25th)

Prosymo laskavo sklasty Vawi cerkovni po]ertvy za cej rik do 25-ho hrudn\.

� STAMFORD DIOCESE CHARITIES APPEAL 2019 UNDERWAY The month of May is the start of the Stamford Diocese Charities Appeal for 2019 This fund is collected to provide financial support of our Eparchy and its many institutions (i.e., seminary, museum, library and offices which promote and support our church and community). The funds raised from this appeal also help the many needs of our Ukrainian Catholic Church, as well as our needy brothers and sisters in Ukraine, Europe, Asia and South America. Please help this fund as you have in the past. Please send/bring all donations to our St. Michael’s church. Do not send them to Stamford. We need to get proper credit for our parish’s pledge. Please take your Bishop’s

Appeal form in Church and make your checks payable to St. Michael’s Church

THERE WAS NO DONATION TO THE DIOCESE APPEAL PAST TWO WEEKS

Year-to-date Total $7,450.00

Lets make our goal of $9,000.00!

Thank You for Your kind generosity

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

9,000

7,450

� BULLETIN ADVERTISING: A reminder to those who provide advertisements for 2019 and didn’t pay yet please do so at your earliest convenience. Who would like to renew or update their announcements to please do so by calling the parish office at 860-525-7823 or see Fr. Pawlo after each Divine Liturgy.

� CHRISTMAS CONFESSION - will be held on Saturday, Dec. 21 from 3:00-5:30PM. A

Visiting Priest will be available. Please prepare yourself for the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) to be ready for Nativity of our Lord.

РІЗДВ#ЯНА СПОВІДЬ – у subotu, 21-го грудня від 3:00 – 5:30 год po poludni bude nahoda prystupyty do tajny Sv. Spovidi ta hidno pryhotuvatys; do vely/noho praznyka Rizdva Xrystovoho.

� CHURCH OFFERING ENVELOPES 2020 Your 2020 Offering envelopes and new 2020

calendars will be ready for pick up on December 14th in the church hall. Anyone who needs

envelopes, please contact the parish office.

CERKOVNI KONVERTY – 2020r. Novi konverty dl\ parafi\n ta novi kalendari na nastupnyj rik budut; pryhotovani dl\ Vas u cerkovnomu zali u nedilq 15-ho hrudn\. |k`o xtos; ne maw konvertiv, prosymo zholosytys\ do parafi\l;no= kancel\ri=.

� FEAST OF ST. NICHOLA Our Holy Father NICHOLAS

THE WONDERWORKER, Archbishop of Myra.

St. Nicholas is one of the most widely venerated saints in all Christianity. The honor extended to him includes not only the Byzantine and Roman Catholics, but Protestant

denominations as well. He is honored even by Muslims. In the weekly liturgical cycle of the Eastern Church, in which each day of the week is dedicated to the Savior and the different orders of heavenly and earthly sanctity, only three persons are singled out by name: the Mother of God, John the Forerunner and St. Nicholas. This latter is quite extraordinary given that he left neither theological works nor other writings. Rather, the Church sees in him the personification of the shepherd, the one who par excellenceis both defender and

intercessor.

He was born of eminent and wealthy parents, and instructed in the spiritual life by his uncle Nicholas, bishop of Patara. He later became a monk at New Sion Monastery. On the death of his parents, he distributed all the property he inherited to the poor, keeping nothing back for himself. As a priest of Patara, he was known for his charitable works, fulfilling the Lord's words: "Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." (St. Matthew 6:3). Though it was his wish to lead the life of a solitary in silence, he was made the Bishop of Myra in the province of Lykia. Continuing his charitable works, he also endured persecution being imprisoned during the persecutions of Diocletian and Maximian. He was present at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325. He became known as a champion of justice after having twice saved men from undeserved sentences of death, and after having delivered people from slavery by providing the necessary payments for their deliverance.

He entered into rest on December 6, 343 and is commemorated in the Church on that day. Later in western European and American folk tradition he was transformed into a mythological person who gives gifts during the Nativity season. Thus while a remnant of the true tradition remains, it has become distorted by those who would reduce the saint to an excuse for commercial enterprise or for cultural observance. It is the task of the Christian to remember that the saint's charity was the direct result of his commitment to our Lord; that his life like the human life of our Lord was a life lived for others. He reminds us that all nations, cultures indeed all the enterprise of this world will cease, but the people we live with, work with and play with are immortal and that we are helping each other to a life with our Lord or without Him.

Among the various feasts of the Saints whose memory we commemorate during the Church Year, St. Nicholas merits special consideration. From earliest times our holy Father, St. Nicholas, enjoyed great veneration and universal respect among our people. Not a single home in our native land was without an icon of St. Nicholas, and his icon is almost always seen among the icons on the iconostasis of our churches. Our people venerate him as though he were a native saint.

Although over one thousand five hundred years have passed since his death, because of his works of charity and merciful generosity, he continues to live in the hearts of millions of people. Every year on his feast day, his love of neighbor continues to live symbolically throughout the world, as thousands upon thousands of children receive gifts in his name. The secret of his great and continuous cult among all Christian nations lies in the fact that he has become a symbol of sacrificial love and compassionate mercy. This is attested by the history of the cult, our church services and the fervent veneration of his icons.

� СВЯТОГО МИКОЛАЯ ЧУДОТВОРЦЯ Коротка історія

Не багато знаємо про життя святого Миколая. І навіть те, що знаємо, повите різними легендами. Знаємо, що святий Миколай довгі літа був єпископом у Мирах, провінція Лікія, у Малій Азії. Він брав участь у Першому Вселенському Соборі (325) у Нікеї. Помер близько 345 року. Усе своє життя присвятив справі милосердя для душі й тіла. Тож ще за життя називали його батьком сиріт, удів і бідних. Після смерти Господь Бог прославив його даром творення чудес, і тому він отримав імення великого чудотворця. Славні чуда були якраз головною причиною його швидкого й широкого культу.

Культ святого Миколая починає поширюватися від часу, коли цісар Юстиніян І (527-565) збудував на його честь церкву в Царгороді. Єрусалимський канонар з VII ст. 6 грудня каже: "Пам'ять Миколая, єпископа одного великого города". Усі грецькі місяцеслови з IX століття мають його празник. Цісар Мануїл Комнен (1143-1181) державним законом приписав святкувати святого Миколая 6 грудня. З Візантії його культ поширюється по цілому світу. Найдавніший життєпис святого Миколая походить з IX сторіччя.

На Заході папа Миколай (858-867) — перший папа з цим іменем — близько 860 року збудував у Римі церкву святого Миколая. До Німеччини його культ принесла

візантійська княжна Теофано, жінка цісаря Оттона II (973-983). Латинська Церква також святкує празник Миколая 6 грудня. У Франції і Німеччині є понад дві тисячі, а в Англії близько 400 церков, які названо в честь Миколая.

На наші українські землі культ святого Миколая приходить разом із християнською вірою. У другій половині XI сторіччя в Києві, на могилі Аскольда, було збудовано церкву святого Миколая.

У Києві під покровом святого Миколая був жіночий монастир, який фондувала жінка князя Ізяслава Святославича (+ 1078). У цьому монастирі прийняла чернечий постриг мати святого Теодосія Печерського. На рідних землях в нас було багато церков на честь святого Миколая. До найдавніших з них належить церква святого Миколая у Львові, що походить з кінця XIII ст. Енциклопедія Українознавства про почитання святого Миколая в нашому народі каже:

"У численних народних переказах Миколай боронить людей від стихійного лиха; найбільше він опікується тими, хто перебуває у плаванні, тому чорноморські рибалки, виходячи на промисел, брали з собою образ Миколая... “

У давнину — святий Миколай також заступник перед небезпеками із степів. Пісні про святого Миколая належать до найдавніших зразків української поезії, серед них такі популярні, як "О хто, хто Миколая любить" (Т. 4, с. 1533).

Святителю отче Миколаю, моли Бога за нас! Великий Угоднику і Святителю Божий Миколаю, Пастирю й Учителю всіх, хто з щирим молінням вдається до Твоєї допомоги. Ти помагав тим, які до Тебе вдавалися, поможи і мені в усіх труднощах і потребах життя мого. Коли прийде хвиля, де сила моя заслаба, труднощі, що стають на дорозі життя мого, завеликі для мене, Ти, Угоднику Божий, подай мені помічну Твою руку і стань мені на охорону, як ставав завжди тим, що в труднощах і небезпеках пам’ятали про Тебе. Поблагослови мене Святительською Твоєю рукою, настав на стежку добру, запали в мені віру непохитну і моли Христа Бога, спастися душі моєї. Амінь.

RIZDV|NYJ BAZAR CHRISTMAS BAZAAR

SOQZ UKRA+NOK AMERYKY (VIDDIL 106) ZAPRO"UW VAS na RIZDV|NYJ BAZAR

u subotu 7-ho hrudn\ vid 10 do 4 hodyny po poludnq u nedilq 8-ho hrudn\ vid 9 do 1 hodyny po poludnq

u 'kil;nomu zali Cerkvy Sv. Myxa=la

Prykrasy na \lynku, podarunky, obrazy, vy`yvka, bi]uteri\, kny]ky, kartky, ru/na robota i in’e. Sma/nyj obid, Pe/yvo, Kava

U.N.W.L. of America Branch 106 cordially invites you to a Christmas Bazaar

Saturday 12/7 (10-4pm) and Sunday 12/8 (9-1pm) in our School Hall.

Ornaments, Embroidery, Jewelry, Paintings, Handmade Items, ets. Tasty Lunch,

Pastries, Coffee…

Пластова Станиця у Гартфорді має шану запросити усіх на

Пластову Свічечку i

Передачу Вифлеємського Вогню Миру

Які відбудуться в неділю , 15-го грудня, 2019р. о год 11:30 рaнo

у церковній залі при Церкві Св. Арх. Михаїла - Гартфорд, Конн.

~Пластунів обов’язує пластовий однострій~

Запрошуємо усіх на святочну програму, коляду і смачну кутю!

Просимo принести ліхтар або свічку якщо бажаєте взяти полум'я додому.

The Bethlehem Peace Light will be distributed on Sunday, December 15th, 2019

Please bring a candle or lantern if you would like to take the flame home with you. It can be used for

lighting the Christmas Eve dinner candle and is traditionally kept lit through Epiphany.

Follow the travels of the Bethlehem Peace Light on

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/150234498356715/

@Peace Light - North America

December 1, 2019 25TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Tone 8

TROPAR (Tone 8): You came down from on high, O Merciful One, and accepted three days of burial to free us from our sufferings. O Lord, our life and our resurrection, glory be to You.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, ...

KONDAK (Tone 8): When You rose from the tomb, You also raised the dead and resurrected Adam. Eve exults in Your resurrection, and the ends of the world celebrate Your rising from the dead, O most merciful One.

now and for ever and ever. Amen

THEOTOKION (Tone 8): To You, O Mother of God, the invincible leader, we, Your servants, ascribe these victory hymns in thanksgiving for our deliverance from evil. With Your invincible power free us from all dangers that we may cry out to You: “Hail, O Bride, and pure Virgin!”

PROKIMEN (Tone 8): Pray and give praise to the Lord our God. Verse: In Judea God is known; His name is great in Israel.

Pray and give praise to the Lord our God.

A reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians (4:1-6)

Brothers, I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

ALLELUIA (Tone 8) Come, let us rejoice in the Lord; let us acclaim God our Savior. Alleluia. (3) Verse: Let us come before His countenance with praise and acclaim Him with psalms. Alleluia. (3)

COMMUNION HYMN: Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the highest. Alleluia. (3)

Bishop sides with priest who denied ‘married’ lesbian judge communion

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, November 27, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop David Walkowiak of Grand Rapids, Michigan has expressed his support for Fr. Scott Nolan, the priest at St. Stephen's Catholic Church in his diocese who has come under fire after a lesbian judge complained to a local media outlet that he had refused her Holy Communion because she is "married" to a woman.

In his statement, Bishop Walkowiak thanked the judge, Sara Smolenski, chief judge of the Kent County District Court, for her "service to the community."

He also said "inclusion" and "acceptance" are hallmarks of the Catholic Church but that such principles presume "respect on the part of individuals for the teachings and practice of the wider Catholic community." He added that "no community of faith can sustain the public contradiction of its beliefs by its own members. This is especially so on matters as central to Catholic life as marriage."

Bishop Walkowiak recalled that mercy is essential to teaching the Gospel, "but so are humility and conversion on the part of anyone seeking to live an authentically Catholic Christian life."

Fr. Nolan's decision was approriate, he added.

FULL STATEMENT FROM BISHOP WALKOWIAK

We appreciate Judge Sara Smolenski’s service to the community. We are grateful for her past generosity. These facts are not at issue in this matter.

As Pope Francis explains in Amoris Laetitia, "The Eucharist demands that we be members of the one body of the Church. Those who approach the Body and Blood of Christ may not wound that same Body by creating scandalous distinctions and divisions among its members." (186) Lifelong Catholics would surely be aware of this.

Inclusion and acceptance have been a hallmark of Catholic Churches in the Diocese of Grand Rapids throughout the diocese’s history. They remain so. They presume, however, a respect on the part of individuals for the teachings and practice of the wider Catholic community. No community of faith can sustain the public contradiction of its beliefs by its own members. This is especially so on matters as central to Catholic life as marriage, which the Church has always held, and continues to hold, as a sacred covenant between one man and one woman.

Father Scott Nolan, pastor of St. Stephen Parish, has dedicated his priesthood to bringing people closer to Jesus Christ. Part of his duty in pursuing that end is to teach the truth as taught by the Catholic Church, and to help it take root and grow in his parish. Mercy is essential to that process, but so are humility and conversion on the part of anyone seeking to live an authentically Catholic Christian life.

Father Nolan approached Judge Smolenski privately. Subsequent media reports do not change the appropriateness of his action, which the diocese supports.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishop-sides-with-priest-who-denied-married-lesbian-judge-communion

Thanking God at Thanksgiving: 100 Years Ago and Today

COMMENTARY: Thanksgiving Day in the United States has always been, first and foremost, about being thankful to God. That seems worth remembering, at least once a year. Paul Kengor

Not every Thanksgiving in America had the feeling of gratitude like Thanksgiving Day 100 years ago. That Thanksgiving 1919 was truly a blessed occasion. Our president was Woodrow Wilson, and his Thanksgiving Day proclamation was significant because America and the world had enjoyed their first full year of peace since 1914, when World War I broke out. Wilson’s nation had intervened. He idealistically called it “the war to make the world safe for democracy.” But it was hard to feel good about what had happened.

It was a vicious war. Pope Benedict XV declared it “the suicide of civilized Europe.” He was appalled that the world’s wealthiest nations had channeled their energies and best science and technology into a mass effort “to destroy one another with refinements of horror.” There seemed “no limit to the measure of ruin and of slaughter.”

The war was aptly described by socialist philosopher Sidney Hook (an atheist, ironically) as no less than “the second fall of man.”

Yes, religious metaphor seemed to best capture the calamity that America and the world had faced. Historian Michael Hull argued that World War I was, in a perverse way, arguably more horrible than World War II. The difference was the absolute waste of lives. “The horrors of World

War I,” wrote Hull, “exceeded those of World War II in terms of the sheer futility of squandered lives.”

Never in history had so many lives been shredded.

Hull invoked the image of O Cristo das Trincheiras (“The Christ of the Trenches”). This was a life-size statue of Jesus Christ hung with arms outstretched on a tall wooden cross erected on the Western Front. Soiled, bullet-scarred, it was given by the French to the government of Portugal after the war to memorialize the thousands of Portuguese decimated at the Battle of Flanders. Today, The Christ of the Trenches looks down upon the tomb of the Portuguese Unknown Soldier at the priory of Santa Maria da Vitoria (St. Mary of Victory) in Batalha, Portugal. As Hull suggests, the Crucified One is an appropriate symbol for the millions who gave their lives in this rotten war.

All of which brings us back to Thanksgiving Day 1919 and why Woodrow Wilson was so particularly thankful that year. “The season of the year has again arrived when the people of the United States are accustomed to unite in giving thanks to Almighty God for the blessings which he has conferred upon our country,” said Wilson. “We look forward with confidence to the dawn on an era where the sacrifices of the nations will find recompense in a world at peace.” As the American people gave thanks to God, they should also “reconsecrate themselves to those principles of right which triumphed through his merciful goodness.”

Wilson affirmed: “During the past year we have had much to make us grateful. … We should strive to aid by our example and by our cooperation in realizing the enduring welfare of all peoples and in bringing into being a world ruled by friendship and goodwill.”

Wilson concluded by declaring that Nov. 27, 1919, was to be “a day of thanksgiving and prayer by my fellow countrymen, inviting them to cease on that day from their ordinary tasks and to unite in their homes and … places of worship in ascribing praise and thanksgiving to God the Author of all blessings.”

There is much that could be said about this. But beyond the history lesson, what should strike us about Wilson’s proclamation and other presidential Thanksgiving proclamations, from George Washington on, is how religious these statements were.

In 1789, America’s first president proclaimed a “day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” George Washington implored the heavens to “pardon our national and other transgressions” and urged the citizenry to practice “true religion and virtue.”

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln urged his countrymen to set aside the last Thursday of November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

Subsequent presidents continued this civic-religious tradition. It was, after all, just that: a public holiday proclaimed to give thanks explicitly to God.

President John F. Kennedy, the nation’s only Catholic president, offered a civics lesson as well as a prayer in his first Thanksgiving Day proclamation: “More than three centuries ago, the Pilgrims, after a year of hardship and peril, humbly and reverently set aside a special day upon which to give thanks to God. They paused in their labors to give thanks for the blessings that had been bestowed upon them by Divine Providence.” Quoting the Bible, President Kennedy affirmed: “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.”

President Ronald Reagan said the same in his proclamation for Thanksgiving Day 1986: “Perhaps no custom reveals our character as a Nation so clearly as our celebration of Thanksgiving Day. Rooted deeply in our Judeo-Christian heritage, the practice of offering thanksgiving underscores our unshakeable belief in God as the foundation of our Nation and our

firm reliance upon Him from Whom all blessings flow.” Like Kennedy, Reagan quoted the Psalms.

Reagan went on, invoking one of his favorite images: George Washington kneeling in the snow in prayer at Valley Forge. He said that that “moving image personifies and testifies to our Founders’ dependence upon Divine Providence during the darkest hours of our Revolutionary struggle.” It personified a people who knew it was not enough to depend on their own courage and goodness; they must also seek help from “their Father, their Preserver.”

I could go on and on with examples from our presidents at Thanksgiving, from Teddy Roosevelt to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, from Harry Truman to George W. Bush. These presidents were Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative. It didn’t matter. America was much more religious, and Thanksgiving was genuinely about not merely being “thankful” but giving thanks explicitly to God. That has changed in more recent times.

Every year at Thanksgiving I trek into Barnes & Noble for an annual ritual of self-mortification. I go to the children’s section and glimpse the offerings for Thanksgiving. It never ceases to be a painful experience.

A friend of mine works in that section, stocking the latest catalogue of books the corporate folks funnel in. I recall my first Thanksgiving conversation with her a few years back.

“How are the Thanksgiving books?” I asked. “You don’t want to know,” she groaned. She found only one book that mentioned giving thanks to God. “Really?” I responded. “Who are they giving thanks to?” “Well,” she said vaguely. “They’re just thankful.” “‘Thankful’ to whom?” I replied. She again emphasized: “They’re just thankful.”

I repeated the exercise last Thanksgiving. It was again agonizing. Among the books featured in the kids’ display: Five Silly Turkeys, How to Catch a Turkey and Where Is Baby’s Turkey?

Of course, not all the books were about turkeys. One “Thanksgiving” book particularly caught my eye: Fangsgiving. Presumably a nod to the vampires involved in the Pilgrims’ courageous endeavor.

Well, that isn’t Thanksgiving.

To be sure, I certainly have no objection to people being thankful. During Thanksgiving at our family table, we take turns naming something were thankful for. But that must come after giving thanks to God as the starting point. For Thanksgiving in America, that was the intent. That’s the lesson here (and should be the lesson especially in books for children).

It’s great to give thanks. But it’s also good to keep in mind that Thanksgiving Day in America has always been, first and foremost, about being thankful to God. That seems worth remembering, at least once a year.

One hundred years ago, President Woodrow Wilson and his nation could have easily complained. Perhaps reflecting a more modern spirit, they could have bitterly shaken their fist at God, asking where he was in those bloody fields of France and No Man’s Land where all those boys were chewed up by the World War I meat-grinder. They could have bemoaned the squandered lives. They didn’t. They paused and thanked God for what they had.

That’s a good thing for Americans to do once a year at Thanksgiving — pause, and give our full thanks to God for all we have and all we are.

Paul Kengor is professor of political science at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/thanking-god-at-thanksgiving-100-years-ago-and-today

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