[An updated 2012 and 2009 collection of Thanksgiving prayers on Twitter is available]

This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for the new friends I’ve met on Twitter, the micro-blogging social network. Since it’s time to update my original collection of Thanksgiving prayers for Catholics, I turned to Twitter for inspiration. Try one of these yourself or share with a fellow parishioner.

• @nunblogger Thanksgiving grace in color (http://ping.fm/gVlaq) and black and white (http://ping.fm/sGLR3) for your Thanksgiving guests.
  
• @CatholicMeme RT @BarbInNebraska Listening to: Catholic:Under The Hood – A Spanish Thanksgiving http://tinyurl.com/69lejm fr @FrSeraphim.
  
• @CatholicMeme Thanksgiving: Saints @ the table, Native American saint & Catholic prayers http://is.gd/8ihj What are your blessings?
  
• @MyCatholicVoice ¡Grita De Alegría! – Salmos para el año litúrgico – A collection of Catholic thanksgiving songs in spanish at http://tinyurl.com/5ohcuj.
• @BobbyGilles Prayer For Illumination and Prayer Of Thanksgiving For Advent Season: Advent is a time of hope and a .. http://bit.ly/q0UO
• @TobyDiva @gourmetstation posted thanksgiving poem/prayer http://tinyurl.com/67ax9r
• @ChuckWarnock Just posted tomorrow’s sermon, A Thanksgiving Prayer, at http://tinyurl.com/5w6kn5
• @BloggingForMich A Thanksgiving Prayer for Activists http://tinyurl.com/62nt9m

Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving prayer to share? And are you thankful I refrained from using the word “Twanksgiving” here?

Update: This post is included in Catholic Carnival #200 at Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering. Check it out.

My post, Veterans Day Prayers for Your Parish Website, from a previous Veterans Day is getting some serious search engine traffic. I’ve updated the list with new resources and to adjust some URLs that changed over time (another good reason to 301 redirect your pages!).

[Updated for 2012]
Yo ho holy ones, Talk Like A Pirate Day (TLAPD) is September 19. Is your church ready? I suspect not, so let Cap’n Mark show you how to celebrate in 10 easy steps that even you landlubbers can follow.

1. Say an Aaarrr Father and Ahoy Mary.
2. Read Paul’s Letter to the Caribbeans.
3. When in doubt, say “Ahoy there, me sacred hearties!”
4. Stay far, far away from Pontius Pirate.
5. “And with yer spirit” is the proper response.
6. Study St. Peter’s Guide to Walking on Water: Surviving the Plank Walk in Three Easy Steps.
7. Suffer no fools who offer pieces of the “true skull & crossbones”…
8. Read the Good Book-aneer.
9. Ponderrrr the lives of Saint Godric of Finchale and St. Olaf, the pirate saints (in their younger days).
10. Keep this straight: To err is human, to aaarrr is pirate.
11. Cannon-ize yer enemies.
12. Remember always that ours is an awesome grog.

Anything to add to this treasure map? Scrawl a comment below.

Tip o’the feathered buccaneer hat to lasses Elizabeth Alves, Susan Reyburn, Mark Stoffel, Laura Olivier and Phil Weslow for helping with this post.

2010 Update: Blimey, somehow I missed this great Pirate’s Act of Contrition from Ironic Catholic. You can see all of her other Catholic Talk Like a Pirate Day posts.

What do you call the crowds jockeying for too few seats at church on Easter Sunday? This year you can call it March Madness. It’s a safe bet that the pews will be packed so here’s your March Madness grid for churches. Keep track of who’s taking up all the room from the Round of XXXII to the Saintly 16, and from the Ecclesiastic 8 to the Faithful Four.

Which worshipers will make
it the the Faithful Four?

Update on March 18, 2008, Part I – This post is part of Catholic Carnival #164 so check it out.
Update on March 18, 2008, Part II – The “real” grid is available as an iGoogle gadget.