Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving - a secular holiday to be sure. But when established, God was in the mix. So thanking God really should be at the center of our thoughts today.

Yes, celebrate with good food and drink. Family and/or friends complete the circle.

Some of us may still recall how the C-Virus Mess kept us away from family gatherings. Ideally, that's not longer the case.

However much your plans may or may not vary from the past, to just enjoy the holiday. 

As we enjoy our Thanksgiving this year, it's likely I'll recall my Mom's simple words, of happy memory: "Thank Your for all of us here." Or words to that effect. And with those came an unstated remembrance of those who could not be with us then and there.

At the time, my Mom and Dad had a longer list of departed family and friends. With the passage of years, our own list has grown. In includes Mom and Dad. It also includes our eldest child. The last time we saw him alive was on a Thanksgiving, when he came to dinner with his wife and little girl, not quite two years old. Here's what we posted recently in the spirit of that remembrance:

We first and foremost thank God - our loving Father - for the gift our dearest son. He will no longer share our Thanksgivings in body and soul. But we believe he will be with us, praying for us today, even as we pray for him.

We thank God for the rest of our family. Despite the pain and sorrow of the last year, we have remained firm in our love for each other. None of us - to my knowledge - has lost his or her faith in God and our holy religion. While none of us is perfect, we all continue to strive for the perfection that God's grace will allow, in whatever degree He allows. And we all look forward to that time when we will be united with our dearest departed son "In Paradisum."

Yes, we'll have our Thanksgiving dinner, in the face of the Great Sadness that still hovers over us. And, yes, we'll do our best to celebrate all the blessings that have remained after the death of our son - and they are bounteous.

When the festivities end for this Year of Our Lord 2019, we will return to our daily work, each pursuing diligently the duties of his or her particular state of life, just as we did before our son's death, and as we have ever since. We will work for the greater glory of God, the God who has showered us with so many blessings for which we are thankful this day.

And as these days pass, we will continue to keep this beautiful vision of our son "In Paradisum," with a spirit of gratitude, ever alive in our hearts and minds.