If you say grace or have a prayer before eating, what do you say? All faiths/spiritualities welcome! - Page 2

[applecider]

Growing up we said:  Come Lord Jesus, Be our Guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed.  Amen.  Now I don't say anything but would like to, hence subscribing to this thread!  (and I'm sorry, my enter key is not working!)

[shanniesue2]

Interfaith here... sometimes DH (Christian) leads the prayer, sometimes I (non Christian UU with earth based leanings) lead the prayer.

We don't have a set prayer, and we take turns leading prayer.  Whoever doesn't cook, leads the prayer.

When I lead prayer, it will often be something along these lines:

"We are grateful for this food and for the hands that prepared it.

We are grateful to the earth which provides our food.

May we remember those who do not have a meal to share tonight

and those who do not have someone to share a meal with

May we always remember to have grateful hearts and helpful hands.

Amen"

When DH leads the prayer, it will often sound something like this

"We are grateful for this food and for the hands that prepared it.

May it nourish our bodies as you nourish our souls.

We pray for a restful and relaxing end to our day.

All this we ask in the name of Jesus Christ Our Lord.  Amen"

And depending on the need, we may remember a friend/family member in need during our prayer.  In extreme weather (heat, cold, snow, ice, etc), we always remember people who do not have adequate shelter from the elements.

[verde]

Pagan and Buddhists here. We've been singing a song my DD bought home from school:

For the golden corn

And the apple in the tree

For the golden butter

And the honey in our tea.

For fruits and nuts and berries

That grow along the way

For birds and bees and flowers

We give thanks everyday.

[knittygritty]

What a sweet thread!  As a Lutheran in a long line of Lutherans, I grew up saying "God is great, God is good. Let us thank him for our food. Amen." but sometimes my grandpa will sneak in the "Come, Lord Jesus, be thou our guest and let this food to us be blessed" that applecider mentioned. Lately I've been using "Thank you for the birds that sing, for rain and sunny weather. Thank you for the food we eat and that we are together." 

[MammaG]

I like this thread too! We're Episcopalian. We sing the Doxology ("Praise God from whom all blessings flow", to the tune of Old 100th) before meals when we can, but sometimes it can be a little hectic around dinner time and then we say, "The rain falls down, the grain grows up. Bless my plate and bless my cup", with hand gestures. This seems to get everyone focused!

We start dinner time conversation by going around the table and saying something we're grateful for today.

We end the meal by blowing out our candle(s) and asking the smoke to carry our prayers to God.

[GreenMamma]

We are an LDS family and we don't have a recited prayer for meals. We give thanks for our blessings with whatever words come from heart.

[ollyoxenfree]

Just stumbled on this thread from the Home page/recent discussions. When my children were young, before meals they liked to recite:

We love our bread

We love our butter

But most of all

We love each other

- Ludwig Bemelmans (from Madeline) 

Then they would also toast everyone with their milk glasses. "To family, friends and happy times!" was typical. 

BTW, this wasn't taught and DH and I don't usually say grace ourselves at every meal. The kids picked up these customs themselves and decided they liked them. We are very casual Protestants, with DD 15 y.o. probably being the most faithful of us and DS 17 y.o probably self-identifies as atheist now. 

[MoonMum]

Prasada-sevaya 
(from Bhaktivinoda Thakura's Gitavali)

1) bhai-re! 
sarira abidya-jal,  jodendriya tahe kal, 
  jibe phele bisaya-sagore 
ta'ra madhye jihva ati,  lobhamoy sudurmati 
ta'ke jeta kathina somsare

2)   krsna baro doyamoy,  karibare jihva jay, 
swa-prasad-anna dilo bhai 
sei annamrta khao,   radha-krsna-guna gao, 
preme dako caitanya-nitai

"O brothers!  This material body is a place of ignorance, and the senses are a network of paths to death.  The senses throw the soul into this ocean of material sense enjoyment and, of all the senses, the tongue is most voracious and uncontrol-lable;  it is very difficult to conquer the tongue in this world.  O brothers!  Lord Krsna is very kind to us and has given us such nice prasada, just to control the tongue.  Now let us take this prasada to our full satisfaction and glorify Their Lordships, Sri Sri Radha and Krsna and, in love, call for the help of Lord Caitanya and Prabhu Nityananda."

[CrunchyChristianMama]

Growing up we would say:

Come Lord Jesus, be our guest

and let these gifts to us be blessed

Amen.

Now that I have my own family, my DH will say a prayer before the meal asking a blessing on it and our family and touching on anything else he feels like.  My DD will add an enthusiastic AMEN! to the end of it and sometimes will say her own little prayer.  It usually goes something like this:

Dear She-she (how she pronounces Jesus - it's hard not to laugh)

gibber-gibber-gibber (completely not understandable chatter)

AMEN!

[CrunchyJess]

We are pretty down to earth in our prayers.  We are Christians but the prayer we say could be easily modified for people of other beliefs.

It generally goes something along the lines of 

God, thank you for the opportunity to spend this meal together. Please bless this food and the hands that made it. In Jesus name, Amen. 

[ilovewest]

We are somewhat progressive Christians, and we all hold hands and say

Dear God, thank you for this food, and thank you for our family.

If there is anything else DH or I feel like adding in, we feel free to at the end. Then DH and I lean over and give each other a little kiss and we each give DS a little kiss too ( family tradition from DH's side).

Works for us!

[PatienceAndLove]

We use two different prayers, one before meals, and one after.

Before: Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ, Our Lord, amen.

After: We give Thee thanks for all Thy benefits, O Almighty God, Who livest and reignest forever. And may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

 

[AJ615]

We thank God for providing our food and for the life and health He gives us through it.  Often we also ask Him to bless the hands that prepared it.  We close our prayer "in Jesus' name, Amen."

[chrissy]

we hold hands and say,

Thank you for the world so sweet,

thank you for the food we eat,

thank you for the birds that sing,

thank you God for everything.

Amen.

[KBG8]

We are a family who celebrates both our Jewish and Christian heritages...

We take turns.... can say whatever you want... my 4 year old always prays after everyone and says "Dear God, thank you for being able to spend this meal as a family, thank you for our family and our home, for this meal and for the money to pay for this meal."  and then Amen.

[Mamaleo]

We got this one from the UU church we used to go to. I've been trying to get us in the habit of saying it every time we sit down to a meal.

Thanks to the hands that plant the seeds

Thanks to the earth giving all that we need

Thanks for the food that we share among friends

And thanks for the love that never ends

[germin8]

Our prayers vary, but it usually always includes: 

Thank you for this food; may it nourish and strengthen us.

And, bless the hands that prepared it.

[DesertFlower]

I follow a sort of buddhist path, and oftem say something like this 

"We receive this food in gratitude to all beings who have helped to bring it to our table, and vow to respond in turn to those in need with wisdom and compassion"

Great thread!

[Ihavefaith]

We are an LDS (Mormon) family and we have a structure to all prayers and blessings in our home.

We start by addressing God/Heavenly Father

We say thanks for whatever we are thankful for

We ask for whatever we need/want

and then we close.

So a food blessing in our home would be something like

Dear Heavenly father, thank you for this day, thank you for xyz. We ask that you please bless this food to give us the nouishment that our bodies need. We say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

[Chloe'sMama]

love this thread!

We just started saying blessings over our food as a family and I love all the neew ideas!  DD1 is 2.5 and will love some of these!

right now we say the:

God is great

God is good 

and we thank Him for our food.

AMEN

DD1 can say the whole thing and often reminds us to say our blessing.