What is the best Thanksgiving hymn?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    I think of Thanksgiving Day as basically a Protestant holiday, what with its associations to legends of the Plymouth Pilgrims, who came to this country because the Church of England was too close to Catholicism for them to live with it. But the most classic hymn for this day, "Come Ye Thankful People, Come", came from England and not New England, and is a happy combination of elements: it has the confident air of the righteous congregation praising God, along with seasonally appropriate references to harvest, and an apocalyptic longing for the return of the Lord that fits perfectly with the Catholic lectionary in the last weeks of the church year.

    Are there others we can commend?

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    Thanked by 4CHGiffen CharlesW SarahJ cesarfranck
  • Joseph Michael
    Posts: 254
    "For the Fruit of His Creation" AR HYD Y NOS or EAST ACKLAM
    Thanked by 1SarahJ
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,499
    FTBOTE

    I love this verse:
    For the joy of ear and eye,
    for the heart and mind's delight,
    for the mystic harmony,
    linking sense to sound and sight;
    Lord of all, to thee we raise
    this our hymn of grateful praise.
    Thanked by 3M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen cesarfranck
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    The text is fine, beautiful.
    It could use a better tune.

    The greatest of all songs of thanksgiving is Te Deum.
    Thanked by 3Kathy CHGiffen cesarfranck
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    . . . except for the Magnificat.
    Thanked by 1mmeladirectress
  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 417
    Now Thank We All Our God
    Thanked by 4M. Jackson Osborn CharlesW SarahJ cesarfranck
  • David DeavyDavid Deavy
    Posts: 105
    I second the Te Deum
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    For reflection:

    Is there a difference between "What is the best song of thanksgiving" and "what is the best hymn for (American) Thanksgiving Day"?
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    An interesting question.
    I think not.
    Not, that is, if all is kept in its proper perspective, i.e., giving thanks to God for our providential blessings.
  • doneill
    Posts: 207
    Interesting topic - I would tend to think there is a difference between those two questions, considering that Thanksgiving Day is full of cultural expectations that don't coincide with classic Catholic hymns of thanks like the Te Deum. I have been pushing for more propers, but this is one of the last days I would insist on it, only for a parish that has been in the habit of doing that for years. Being an American observance, there are no heritage musical chants, and there are some appropriate hymns that, unlike for many days of the year if you choose according to the lectionary, are part of cultural memory. I grew up Presbyterian, and we sang "Come, Ye Thankful Come" every year at Thanksgiving. It was only this year when I planned it for one of the final Sundays of Ordinary Time that I realized its apocalyptic imagery (I thought the harvest was, well, the harvest.). Yesterday, we sang that, "For the Beauty of the Earth," and "Now Thank We All Our God."
    Thanked by 1chonak
  • cesarfranck
    Posts: 158
    Now Thank We All Our God and even better would be Sing to The Lord of Harvest.
    Sing To The Lord of Harvest .pdf
    35K
    Thanked by 1chonak
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Gather us in?
    Thanked by 1Richard Mix
  • davido
    Posts: 873
    Let All Things Now Living
    We Gather together to ask the Lord’s Blessing
    Thanked by 2cesarfranck MNadalin
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