Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-30
SPECIAL THANKSGIVING
SERVICES ARE HELD
IN CATHOLIC CHURCHES


Thanksgiving day was observed in
Catholic churches with special masses.
The altars were twinkling with many
lighted candles and richly robed priests
moved about the sanctuaries amid
choice blooms.
At the Cathedral of st. Vibiana
solemn high mass was celebrated by Rt.
Rev. Mgr. Harnett. At the close of
the sermon Monsignor Harnett recited
publioally the Thanksgiving prayer
composed by Archbishop Carroll of
Baltimore, who during the American
Revolution was a staunch friend of
Washington and the young republic.
He was a brother of Charles Carroll,
one of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence.
Rt. Rev. Bishop Conaty preached the
sermon. He said in part
1T is a day of thanksgiving to God
for his blessings to us in the divine
faith which has come to us through
Jesus Christ, who has redeemed and
ennobled our manhood. Our glory
should be i'm the consciousness of good
done for the glory of God and the
benefit of our fellow men. Duty neg
lected or duty badly done should serve
to reproach us with ingratitude to-
ward the gifts of God by. virtue of
WHICH we are elldDleQ 10 40 Il1dC WHICH
church and state require of us.
This day is born out of the religious
sense of a community which believed
that man had duties to God as well as
to the state that the state was a hand
maid of Cod instituted by him to en-
able man the more easily to serve God
and thus do his whole duty. Our re-
public is built upon the great truths of
mans inalienable rights, thus ac-
knowledging Gods supremacy by the
very fact that these were rights above
rand beyond state control. AS a nation
we are made up of the best blood of all
the nations, and Divine Providence has
thrust upon us the mission of individual
freedom, guaranteeing to all men the
rights of conscience and protecting all
men in the enjoyment of liberty with
law, showing to the world a people
sovereign without social tyranny, a
people free without anarchy, recogniz-
ing the individual as entitled to lib
erty which has it's source neither in
conventions nor society, but in God, who
made man for the truth and for him
self.
" For Individual Freedom
"As citizens we have reason to be
grateful to Almighty God for the bless
ings of individual freedom which we
and thankfulness should be in the bet
tering of our lives that we may bring
to the help of one another the inteli-
gence and strength that come from
the goodness of life.
THE gifts of nature and the gifts of
grace are sources of thanksgiving to
God. We never can be sufficiently
grateful to him for the faith which
has come to US The test of our belief
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our duty to God and to our country.
The Christian ideal of life should be our
ideal and we should live so as to realize
| it. In the midst of a world of indiffer-
ence we should stand for faith and re-
| ligious principles. In the midst of the
tendency toward evil we should stand
for the good. Our lives should be lives
of virtue. We should love the things
that are pure and true. We should be
| faithful to all our religious obliga-
tions, loving the church and its priest
hood, loving the sacraments and fire.
quenting them, realizing that upon each
one of us is the duty of an apostolic
man to preach the truth and live it.
CAS- Catholics we should be leaders in
moral principles; we should make men
feel that the gospel is the rule of true
| life, whether in the family, business
exchange, political circles or mans per-
sonal life. If we would preserve our
republic for our children we must labor
to burn out indifference to Gods law
which is eating at the very vitals of
| the nations. We need men in public
life, as well as in private life, who
carry with them moral convictions
which alone will stand by men in the
day when difficulties arise. We need
not look for a race of giants to meet
Goliath; it was a simple shepherd boy
who slew him of old. 1t is not strength
we need nor genius, but virtue in the
individual who promotes the kingdom
Of God in the world by promoting it in
his own heart.
Let us unite today, then, in thanking
God for his blessings to us as individ-
uals and as a people. Let us pray that
he may continue these blessings, that
he may teach us to appreciate his
goodness to us in our republic. Let us
pray earnestly for our president and al
who are chosen by the people to rule
that they may rule as the messengers
of God and servants of the people, thai
they may recognize God as the source
of all authority. God bless our coun.
try God bless our people. May we al
realize that Gods blessing will come tC
us in so much as we do his command,
mepts, that our nation will grow
stronger the closer our people are t
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