Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

I would first like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. For Catholics, this really isn't out of the ordinary at all. At Mass, we always have Thanksgiving Day. The word "Eucharist" comes from the Greek, εὐχαριστία, which means "thanksgiving". Granted, today is a day set aside to give thanks to God for all he has given us. This includes the gift of life. After all, we wouldn't exist if our parents hadn't given us life. For us in America, this also includes the freedom to worship as we wish without harassment by the government (although in the future, this freedom of religion could be challenged, but this is another issue altogether that I will leave for another day).

And now for a word on Black Friday and its encroachment onto Thanksgiving. Black Friday has been the Friday after Thanksgiving in which shopping for Christmas begins and many stores have really great deals on merchandise. This year, there are retail stores which have started black Friday specials as early as 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. on Thursday (for those of you which keep 24 hour time, this is 21:00 or 22:00 on Thursday). To me, this is really sad because Thanksgiving Day is a day to spend with family. If you have to leave your leave your family on Thanksgiving Day evening just to go buy stuff, you might want to rethink your priorities and leave the shopping for Friday. There will still be deals at the stores later, so why rush it? Family is much more important than shopping will ever be. You will always have the chance to shop, but you will only have your family for a time, so make the most of that time.

On a side note, the new Mass translations for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite go into effect this weekend. I hope everything goes well with the execution of the new changes to the words. I am writing a Mass setting for the new translations which, unfortunately, is not completed yet. When it gets closer to completion, I will post a preview on this blog.

If you have any questions or comments on this, I would love to hear them. You may either send them via the comment box below or via e-mail at catholictechgeek@gmail.com, and I will answer any e-mail I get at the end of my next article. You can also subscribe to my rss feed or follow me on Twitter (username is @rctechgeek).