Blessing your Turkey? And, an Official Prayer for This Thanksgiving

Did you know? Not only is there an official prayer, there is even an official blessing for your turkey on this Thanksgiving!

Divine Worship: The Missal is the official liturgical book for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, a variant of the liturgy for the Roman Rite. It’s proper for Thanksgiving Day includes a collect that truly captures the spirit of the holiday. Next Thursday before you eat your Thanksgiving meal, trying praying below:

Thanksgiving Day Prayer

Almighty and gracious Father, we give thee thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we beseech thee, faithful stewards of thy great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Can your Thanksgiving turkey be blessed? First promulgated by Pope Paul V in 1614, the Rituale Romanum or Roman Ritual contains all services a priest or deacon of the Roman Rite can perform not already covered by the Breviary or Missal.

The Roman Ritual includes special blessings for nearly anything: chapter eleven includes a section for “blessings of food.” Included is a blessing of fowl or any kind of bird – yes, even your Thanksgiving turkey can be blessed.

The Blessing of Fowl or Any Kind of Bird

P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
All: Who made heaven and earth.
P: The Lord be with you.
All: May He also be with you.

Let us pray.
God, author of all nature, who, among the many created species, also brought forth winged creatures from the primeval waters for the use of mankind; from which Noe, on coming out of the Ark, offered you a pleasing holocaust; who commanded your people, delivered from Egypt through Moses, your servant, to eat these winged creatures, separating the clean from the unclean; we humbly entreat you to bless and to sanctify this flesh of clean birds, so that all who eat thereof may be filled with your bounteous blessing, and may deserve to come to the feast of everlasting life; through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.
They are sprinkled with holy water.

Interested in learning more about Thanksgiving and Catholicism’s intertwined history? Read about the time the pilgrims were saved on their first Thanksgiving by a Catholic American Indian.