Collect for the Fourth Sunday in Advent

Lord raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us, and with great might succor us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we be sore let and hindered, thy bountiful grace and mercy, through the satisfaction of thy son our Lord, may speedily deliver us; to whom with thee and the holy ghost be honor and glory, world without end.

Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent

Lord, we beseech thee, give ear to our prayers, and by thy gracious visitation lighten the darkness of our heart, by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1863

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the field of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than theretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

In testimony wherof I have herunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

[Signed]
A. Lincoln

Poem from A Ballad-maker's Pack, 1921, by Arthur Guiterman, 1871-1943

The First Thanksgiving Day
Boston, 1631

The curse of Cain was on the earth;
  The leaden heavens frowned;
The Winter closed with cruel dearth
  And gripped the fruitless ground.

Behind us rose the somber wood,
  Before us stretched the foam -
A thousand leagues of briny flood
  That sundered us from Home.

The meager mussel was our meat;
  We robbed the squirrel's hoard;
Our barren glebe beneath our feet,
  We cried upon the Lord.

"Arouse your souls against despair,"
  The godly Winthrop said,
"And chuse a day of fast and prayer;
  For surely, He who led

"Our wanderings across the wave
  Shall hear us when we plead,
And stretch a mighty arm to save
  His people in their need."

Behold! when all is bleak and drear
  And want assails the land,
How God delighteth to appear
  To work with wondrous hand!

For, even as we made to deal
  To one that hungered sore
The utmost handful of our meal,
  A shout arose from shore.

An hundred watching eyes descried
  Through Winter's misty pall
The good ship Lion breast the tide
  With provender for all.

Then joined the voice of first and least
  A hymn of thanks to raise;
Our day of Fasting changed to Feast
  And Prayer gave way to Praise.

So, once in every year we throng,
  Upon a day apart,
To praise the Lord with feast and song
  In thankfulness of heart.

Orthodox prayer of thanksgiving after deliverance from trouble

Almighty and merciful God, I most humbly and heartily thank Your divine majesty for Your loving kindness and tender mercies, that You have heard my humble prayer, and graciously granted me deliverance from my trouble and misery. I pray to you to continue granting Your helping grace, that I may lead a life pleasing to You, ever remembering Your mercies, and the blessings You have undeservedly bestowed upon me, that I may continually offer to You the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.