A Poem for Thanksgiving

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

November 28, 2013, Thanksgiving Day.  There are various ways to find the first Thanksgiving, depending on what you're seeking.  George Washington declared a Thanksgiving. So did Abraham Lincoln. The first one, not proclaimed, but celebrated nonetheless, was offered in Florida by Spanish explorers, and noted with a grateful celebration of Holy Mass. I tried to find a poem to share that would suit the day as we know and memorialize it, and found one by Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1793-1835). It was in a little volume of Poems for Memorizing that my mother had in elementary school, 1924.  We have had, so far, many freedoms, thanks to our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.  I wonder for how long those freedoms will last the way things are going. We have already lost more than we know. Freedom of speech and religion are in jeopardy and challenged every day it seems.  This little verse seemed appropriate.
                                                           ************************

                                                      THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS

The breaking waves dashed high on a stern and rockbound coast,
And the woods against a stormy sky their giant branches tossed;
And the heavy night hung dark the hills and waters o'er,
When a band of exiles moored their bark on the wild New England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes, they, the true-hearted, came;
Not with the roll of stirring drums, and the trumpet that sings of fame;
Not as the flying come, in silence and in fear; -
They shook the depths of the desert gloom with their hymns of lofty cheer.

Amidst the storm they sang, and the stars heard, and the sea,
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang with the anthems of the free!
The ocean eagle soared from his nest by the white wave's foam,
And the rocking pines of the forest roared - this was their welcome home!

There were men with hoary hair amidst that pilgrim band;
Why had they come to wither there away from their childhood's land?
There was woman's fearless eye, lit by her deep love's truth;
There was manhood's brow serenely high and the fiery heart of youth.

What sought they thus afar? Bright jewels of the mine?
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? - They sought a faith's pure shrine!
Ay, call it holy ground, the soil where first they trod; -
They left unstained, what there they found - Freedom to worship God
                                                           *******************

Here is a prayer that I say for the preservation of our nation as it continues to slide into every form of degradation and blasphemy. We are losing God's protection and invite His condemnation and destruction.

                                                   PRAYER TO SAVE AMERICA

O merciful God, we cry to Thee for pardon and for mercy. We are an unbelieving and perverse generation.
We are disobedient, disloyal and ungrateful to Thee. We have excluded Thee from our homes, our schools, our places of business. We are no longer to be called Thy children. Merciful Father, spare America. Forgive us. Save us from the scourge we deserve. Teach us Thy law, and move our wills to serve Thee today and every day. Merciful God, please spare America.