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First president’s thankful letter at auction

06 Oct 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist this Sunday urges us to “sing joyfully to the Lord” and to “come into his presence with thanksgiving.” President George Washington urged a similar spirit of thanksgiving in his 1789 proclamation establishing the first Thanksgiving Day. One of only two known copies of the document will be auctioned at Christie’s in New York City November 14.The only other known copy of the proclamation is at the Library of Congress, the auction house said. The proclamation, which set the first national day of thanksgiving for Thursday, November 26, 1789, is projected to sell for between $8 million and $12 million. It's being sold by a private American collector.Washington marked the day in 1789 by attending services at St. Paul's Chapel in Manhattan. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving Day a permanent national holiday to be celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday in November. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 moved it to the third Thursday in November. Two years later Congress passed a resolution reestablishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.Washington's proclamation says in part: “Both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer. Now therefore do I recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being.”Homily hint: Though it’s a cliché to say that “every day should be Thanksgiving Day,” that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. While some may pay millions for a proclamation, we need no invitation to thank our Maker for all we are given each day. Source: An article by the Associated Press

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Fact of the week

18 Sep 2016 - Preaching the News for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

From the age of 17 to almost the end of his life, President George Washington had recurrent attacks of malaria. He developed a severe case of smallpox, which ultimately left his skin scarred for life, and later developed tuberculosis from which he took two years to fully recover. He had a tendency to become depressed when ill and was haunted by premonitions of death. Thomas Jefferson wrote that Washington was, in all aspects of his life, "inclined to gloomy apprehensions." Medical History of American Presidents

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Quotes

22 Jan 2017 - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

You will know your vocation by the joy that it brings you. —Dorothy Day The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge . . . is itself a frightful despotism. –George Washington

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Quotes

26 Jan 2020 - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

You will know your vocation by the joy that it brings you. —Dorothy Day The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge . . . is itself a frightful despotism. —George Washington In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity. —Augustine of Hippo

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Quotes

22 Jan 2023 - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

You will know your vocation by the joy that it brings you. —Dorothy Day The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge . . . is itself a frightful despotism. —George Washington

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