Latest Message from Fr. Paul Cao – November 23, 2025

A SPIRIT OF THANKSGIVING – Next Thursday, we will celebrate Thanksgiving Day. It is a special day on which our forebears stopped their activities to give thanks to God for all that they had been given, especially the land and the produce from the land.

Please join us to celebrate Thanksgiving Mass on Wednesday evening, November 26 at 7 PM at St. Cyprian and 9 AM on Thursday, November 27 at St. Celestine.

We give thanks to the Lord for many blessings that He has bestowed upon us. Thanksgiving is not an added extra. It is absolutely central to the life of a Christian. Without a spirit of thanksgiving our Christian lives would be cold and lifeless. An attitude of mind in which thankfulness has no part is likely to lead to pettiness, resentment and cynicism. Thankfulness, on the other hand, preserves the right relationship with God. If we’re thankful, God is necessarily part of our lives. God doesn’t need our thanks, but we need to thank God, as the Preface in the Roman Missal says: “For, although You (God) have no need of our praise, yet our thanksgiving is itself your gift, since our praises add nothing to your greatness but profit us for salvation, through Christ our Lord.” This reminds us that everything we have, we owe to him. It’s easy to be grateful to God for the good things that happen to us. But we must try to be grateful for all of our lives – the bad as well as the good, the sorrows and the joys, the failures and successes. This is no easy task. We can truly call ourselves grateful people only when we can say thanks for everything that has brought us to this moment.

We need to give thanks to God everywhere and every time. Thanksgiving, when it is an attitude of life, becomes “thanks-living – living in gratitude; living with a thankful heart.” Thanksgiving, as a way of life, also means “thanks” to God and “giving to others.” As we celebrate Thanksgiving, we have many things to be thankful for: our life, our parents, our families and friends, our work, and our future life together.

These are just a few sources of nourishment for which to be thankful, as we live in a land blessed with so much. We are equally blessed to be part of an active, thriving parish community. We have great cause to be thankful for the 40+ individuals employed as staff members, teachers, and support workers. We share in the blessing of so many selfless volunteers who consistently come to the aid of all of our parish events. We are grateful for so many people in our parish who continue to be generous with their financial support. We are grateful for so many priests who have helped us to celebrate the Eucharist such as Fr. Ron Navoy, Fr. Filbert Ngwila, our new Associate Pastor Fr. Paul Eruva and our resident priests Fr. Stan Ilo, Fr. Kenneth Ekekwe, and Fr. Andrew Ezechiugo who live in our parish campus. We are also grateful for our deacons: Mike DeLarco and Roland Merced who assist us at the Eucharist and have served us in many different ministries.

As for me, I give thanks to God every day for the opportunity to be with you and to serve you as your pastor – to have ongoing occasions for getting to know you better, and to be blessed by your many kindnesses and generous support. My life is richer for knowing you – and I count you among my blessings.

May God continue to bless you abundantly and may you always be conscious of the blessings you have received.

Thanksgiving Prayer

Lord, we thank you for the goodness of our people and for the spirit of justice that fills this nation. We thank you for the beauty and fullness of the land and the challenge of the cities. We thank you for our work and our rest, for one another and for our homes. We thank you, Lord: Accept our thanksgiving on this day. We pray and give thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

– From Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers via USCCB.org.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Fr. Paul Cao
Pastor of St. Mother Theodore Guerin Parish