Prayer for Thanksgiving
By: Margot Henderson
As we give thanks around this table
for all the fruit the Mother yields
we honour those who gave
their Lives and Labour
in other Lands and fields
As we break bread together
we remember those who went before
Our Ancestors who sought a new world
on a far and distant shore
As we remember the First People
wise in the ways of the earth
who shared freely of their harvest
that the strangers be spared death
They gave for the grace of giving
they gave the gift of corn
they gave for love of all things living
and for the children yet unborn
So much has been dishonoured
in the last few hundred years
so much suffering and sorrow
marks the People's Trail of Tears
The Sacred Hoop was broken
the fragments held by few
may our prayers now be spoken
to weave the Hoop anew
We give thanks as once you taught us
to Our Grandmother the Earth
for we are all her sons and daughters
breath of the same breath
We now come in Thanksgiving
for the sake of all things living
we offer up this Grace.
