Blessings Before Eating - All Faiths Welcome

[just_lily]

We don't currently say grace, or give a blessing before we eat, but I am thinking it is a custom I would like to start. I would prefer something that doesn't begin with "rub a dub dub".

If you say a blessing, what do you say in your family? Do you say the same thing every time, or do you just say what you are feeling at the time? Do you say it every time you eat, just for dinner, or just on special occasions?

Thanks!

[jimblejamble]

Usually along the lines of:

Our dear Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for this beautiful day [if at someone's house, insert "We are grateful for the ___ family and their generosity in providing this meal." If it's Sunday insert: "We are grateful that we were able to attend Church and partake of the Sacrament and be with our brothers and sisters."]. We are grateful for this food that has been prepared and ask that Thou would bless it that it will give us the strength and nourishment that we need. Again we are so grateful to Thee and we love Thee and Thy Son. We ask for this blessing in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ, amen.

ETA - every meal, including snacks.

[annettemarie]

We say it every time we eat. Often, we use the Catholic stand-by "Bless us, o Lord, and these Thy gifts which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord, Amen"

But at lunch we have a bunch of kids' blessings in rotation.

Johnny Appleseed (Well, the Lord's been good to me and so I thank the Lord for giving me the things I need, the sun and the rain and the apple seed, the Lord's been good to me, Amen!)

Thank you for the world so sweet,
Thank you for the food we eat,
Thank you for the bird that sings,
Thank you God for everything.

God is great...

Dear God, we thank You for this food
For earth and home and all that's good
For wind and rain and stars above
But most of all for those we love.

Those are a few of our faves.

[pampered_mom]

I really like the book "Saying Grace: Blessings for the Family Table" by Sarah McElwain (editor). It's literally chock full of graces/blessings from different cultures, faiths, etc.

My ds' favorite grace came from "Seven Times the Sun" by Shea Darian:

We gather round the table
where bodies are renewed
where hearts appease their hunger
for we feast on more than food

[Stargirl]

A Child's Book of Blessings and Prayers
Collected and Introduced By: Eliza Blanchard

Rich treasury of graces, poems, prayers and blessings drawn from around the world. Selections hve been specially chosen to address the spiritual needs of children and to encourage giving, service and gratitude. Includes words to bless the morning, share at bedtime, honor a birthday, even give thanks for a friend next-door. Each selection is surrounded by engaging and child-friendly, full-color illustrations. This diverse collection, with prayers from Hindu, Sioux, Islamic, Jewish, Christian and Unitarian Universalist traditions, to name only a few, highlights the common threads that can unite people of all faiths. Beautifully illustrated in full color. Ages 4 and up.

There is a love
Holding me
There is a love
Holding you
There is a love
Holding all
I rest
in this love.

--Rebecca Parker


At night, I open the window
and ask the moon to come
and press its face into mine.
Breathe into me.

—Rumi


Thank you for my friend next door;
And my friend across the street,
And please help me to be a friend.
To each and every one I meet.

—Anonymous

[Nabbe]

We are muslims, and this is what we say before and after meals:

Before meals or drinks one should say:
Bismillah wa'alaa baraktillah. This means In the name of God and with blessings of God.

When finishing meals one should say:
Alhamdu Lillaah illadhee at'amanaa, wasaqaannaa, wa ja'alanna Muslimeen.
Meaning:All praise is due to God, Who has given us to eat and to drink, and Who has made us Muslims.

[CorasMama]

We are mindful and thankful for our ability to have such bounty, and also for those people who have grown, raised, sold, and prepared our food, and ask blessings upon them. We are mindful and thankful of our time together, and ask for blessings upon our family unity. And we ask a blessing on the food and the meal, that it may nourish our bodies and spirits. Plus any specific concerns of the day.

[Bluegoat]

We have a few we use. one standard is:

Bless our Lord this food to our use, and us to Thy service, and make us ever mindful of the needs of others. Amen.

Sometimes we do this responsive prayer:

The eyes of all wait upon Thee, O Lord.
R. And thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest thine hands
R. And fillest all things living with plentiousness.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and To the Holy Ghost,
R. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen

We also sing the Johnny Appleseed song sometimes.

[doubledutch]

herb and flower, seed and fruit
holy salt and humble root
milk and honey, sprout and bean
bellies full and dishes clean
(let's eat!)

[doubledutch]

another one i read here (the last time this was a thread ) that i loved, went something like this:

earth that gives to us this food
sun that makes it ripe and good
blessed earth and blessed sun
love and thanks for all you've done

something like that. i'm not remembering it exactly. maybe the person who posted it back then will come back & correct me!

[Earth Momma]

my kids are young so we keep it simple:

I am grateful to those who helped bring me this food.

and sometimes we talk about all the people that help to get the food from the earth to our plate

[PatienceAndLove]

"Bless us O Lord, and these, Thy gifts. Which we are about to receive, from thy Bounty. Through Christ, Our Lord, Amen."

[anjanetteopal]

Love this blog post about how important saying a food blessing is as we struggle to eat healthy on a budget (from a Catholic perspective - though I'm not Catholic): http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/20...meal-blessing/

[mamabadger]

We have a standard blessing before meals, which one person says while the others remain silent:

The Lord's Prayer/Our Father; then,
"Glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.
Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy.
Christ our God, bless the food and drink of Thy servants, for Thou art holy always."

[smeisnotapirate]

We're Jewish, so we usually say a bracha (blessing) specific to the food we're eating. For example, if we're having fruit, we'll say "Baruch ata Hashem, Eloheinu Melech haolam, borei p'ri haeitz." Which is something along the lines of "Blessed is G-d, who created the world and gives us the fruit of the tree."

Afterwards, we do Birkat Hamazon for any meal containing bread. Here's a YouTube video of a bunch of kids doing it at a local camp - ignore the awkward silence while the counselor tries to get them to quiet down enough. (Also, there is only ONE table thump - at "v'al shulchan zeh" but the kids came up with all these motions and they kinda stuck, so they're now a tradition at camp. )

I grew up Catholic, and my parents always did "Bless us O Lord", my grandparents had this huge elaborate "Our Father," "Bless us O Lord," and "May the souls of the faithful departed" thing. DH's family (Presbyterian) does the "Lord we thank you for this food, for rest and home and all things good...."

[robin3]

We are Unitaritan Universalists and we light a candle in a chalice at dinner and pick a reading from the book "A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meal from Buddha to the Beatles". Our ds is 9 and we have been doing this since he was born. Now he picks out the reading and reads it.

[kangamitroo]

this is a beautiful idea for a thread. in our house we say silent thanks, for all of the elements of creation that came together to make the food (soil, rain, humans etc), to God for overseeing it all, for our good fortune to have food. i also add (and dd might too?) a wish that all bellies may have food and all people have good company to eat with & that our gratitude will color our day.
when we have company (e.g. Grandma) we often say grace aloud, as that seems to be more familiar for much of our family.

i've enjoyed reading everyone's posts. i particularly like the grace posted below, and could see this at our Thanksgiving meal:

Originally Posted by pampered_mom

I really like the book "Saying Grace: Blessings for the Family Table" by Sarah McElwain (editor). It's literally chock full of graces/blessings from different cultures, faiths, etc.

My ds' favorite grace came from "Seven Times the Sun" by Shea Darian:

We gather round the table
where bodies are renewed
where hearts appease their hunger
for we feast on more than food

[Magelet]

We don't currently say a blessing before or after meals at home. (When we have shabbos dinner with friends, we say birkat hamazon after the meal, and I'm learning it slowly. hopefully sometime I will know it well enough that we will say it, at the least, after shabbos meals.)

At work, we always say a sort of blessing before lunch. Its sort of a "non religious/denominational gratitude blessingy thing". That is, we may have jews, christians, pagans, atheists, hindus, druze, and people from a million other religions, who knows. Therefore, it shouldn't make anyone uncomfortable or nervous. We have had a few people who said something religious which made others uncomfortable, so if it isn't clear to a new person who is asked to say it, we mention it.

It might be someone saying "thank you for the food" or specific things they are grateful for, sometimes long or short. I like to say thanks to the volunteers, interns and apprentices and their hard work in the kitchen, and the community, what I'm grateful for at the moment, and then finish by thanking the plants and animals that gave their lives for our food, the earth, the sun, the farmer's, ranchers, drivers, cooks and anyone else I think of involved in getting us the food that gave their lives work. Sometimes its just a few moments of silence.

[wombatclay]

We generally use the song from dd1's waldorf preschool:

blessings on the blossom
blessings on the root
blessings on the leaf and steam
blessings on the fruit

We use the same blessing every day since dd1 and dd2 really like it.

[zacharysmom]

we did one when i taught preschool that went
thank you god for our moms and dads
broithers sisters friends i have
and on this special day i say
thanks you lord for every thing
amen