This is the entrance hymn for our parish mass this morning:

Come, ye thankful people come,
Raise the song of harvest home:
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin.
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied:
Come to God’s own temple, come,
Raise the song of harvest home.
All the world is God’s own field,
Fruit unto God’s praise to yield:
Wheat and tares together sown,
Unto joy or sorrow grown.
First the blade, and then the ear,
Then the full corn shall appear:
Lord of harvest, grant that we
Wholesome grain and pure may be.
For the Lord our God shall come,
And shall take this harvest home:
From God’s field shall in that day
All offenses purge away;
Give God’s angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast,
But the fruitful ears to store
In God’s garner evermore.
Even so, Lord, quickly come
To Thy final harvest home:
Gather Thou Thy people in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin;
There, forever purified,
In Thy presence to abide:
Come with all Thine angels, come,
Raise the glorious harvest home.
— Henry Alford and George J. Elvey

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!

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