What blessings do you say at dinner? - Page 2

[oyemicanto]

For breakfast:

"Waking this morning I smile - 24 brand new hours before me.
I vow to live fully in each moment, and look on all beings with eyes of compassion. Blessings on our meal."

[The Duchess]

We often pray freely for grace at meals as well as the traditional Catholic "Bless us O Lord..". One of my dd's introduced us to

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!

We almost always shout "And God bless the cook!"

[cdmaze]

At our preschool co-op we say :

Blessing on the blossom
Blessing on the root
Blessing on the leaf and stem
Blessing on the fruit

At home we just say Thank you Lord for this food, Amen

[sagewinna]

We say:

Thank you, God, for our life, our loving family, our home, andthe food before us.
Please bless those who grew our food, prepared this meal and will clean up after it. Amen

[tatermom]

Originally Posted by The Duchess

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!

We use this one, too!

[blissmonkey]

Just for fun!

There are a lot of nice prayers/blessings here! As a huge Simpsons fan (well, I used to be--back when it was funny!) I thought I would add this one (purely for fun, of course!)

Homer and Marge are having dinner at the house of Apu and Manjoula, and Apu says the following blessing:
Good rice,
Good curry,
Good Ghandi,
Let's hurry!

And, growing up Catholic, my family always said the traditional prayer, so I was surprised to see some people say "Bless us OUR Lord, ..." We always said, "Bless us OH Lord..."

[ledzepplon]

Originally Posted by blissmonkey

And, growing up Catholic, my family always said the traditional prayer, so I was surprised to see some people say "Bless us OUR Lord, ..." We always said, "Bless us OH Lord..."

We do "Bless us, O Lord."

I know it's maybe just a Catholic thing, but we also say "May the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace" sometimes.

[insahmniak]

Originally Posted by hahamommy

Our family's favorite:
It is a Blessing to Be,
It is a Blessing to Be Here,
It is a Blessing to Be Here, Now
It is a Blessing to Be Here, Now, Together

We use it often, not just for mealtimes, but anytime we need the affirmation

~diana

I like this, Diana. We may adopt it ourselves. I hope you won't mind.

As for us, not all that reverant but it's short and sweet...

"Here we are....all. of. us."

AA Milne fans will recognize it. Rabbit says it to appease Pooh, who keeps interrupting him to make sure everyone has been included. We like to say it when we recognize that we are all together sharing a special memory. Dinners together count for that!

[treemom2]

In Japan whenever they eat/drink it is customary to say "Itadakimas" which means I gratefully accept--they also say this when they receive a gift from someone. We really like the concept of being grateful for all we have. . .even if we aren't thanking a certain deity. So, we put our hands together and give a little bow while saying Itadakimas before every meal/snack/drink.

[JoyfulMomma]

Originally Posted by lawgrrl

Earth, who gave to us this food,
Sun, who made it ripe and good,
Dear Earth, Dear Sun, by you we live,
Our loving thanks to you we give.

This is what we say too. I am getting some good iedas from here. Thanks, Mamas!

JM

[sweetc]

Sun above and earth below
Thank you very much for the things that you grow
Wind and rain and a fairy's kiss
Thank you very much for all of this
Blessing on our dinnner
Good eating everyone

and them we usually add
Thank you God
Amen

My son learned that at his preschool (waldorf) and loves to sing it every night before dinner. Very sweet. Sung to the tune of....hummm. I'll ask his teacher. I'm not sure.

[Learnintolaugh]

Originally Posted by warriorprincess

Come Lord Jesus, Be our guest.
And let this food to us be blest
Blessed be God who is our Bread
May all the world be clothed and fed

We do the first part of this too, I never knew there was a second part. Actually, I always that dh's family made it up!

When we have dinner with his family we sing (please excuse any misspellings and grammatical missteps):

Mira que bueno, que bueno es,
Mira que bueno, que bueno es,
Mira que bueno es cuando el pan en la mesa,
Es una bendicion de nuestro padre Dios.
Te damos gracias oh Senor,
Te damos gracias por tu amor.

My rough stab at translation: See how good it is when there is bread on the table, it is a blessing from our father God. We give you thanks oh, Lord, we give you thanks for your love.

Last time we were there the boys suddenly decided that singing before meals was the greatest thing ever and we had to sing it three times before they were satisfied.

[Potty Diva]

We don't say a prayer before our meals at home, but at the center where I work the children do. They say

God is Great
God is Good
Let us thank him for our food
By his hands we now are fed
Give us lord our daily bread.
Amen.
Bless the Cook.


OR

God our father, God our father
Once again, once again
We say our blessing, we say our blessing
Awww aw men.

[trimomma]

:

Thanks, everyone, for all these blessings. There are a few on here that I've heard before, liked, and wasn't able to remember them when it came time for dinner at home. So, thanks for those.

I never said blessings before meals growing up, but my children *really* love saying them. They take turns picking the blessing for the meal. Currently, our favorite blessing (and I think I read it here on MDC) is

We love our bread
We love our butter
But most of all
We love each other.

[Mamatohaleybug]

No rote prayers here. We say an original prayer/blessing for each meal.

[The Duchess]

Originally Posted by trimomma

:

We love our bread
We love our butter
But most of all
We love each other.

I just read this out to my children saying how I like it and my six year old said "that's from Madeline!". I guess we can get inspiration from anywhere!

When I lived in a Catholic lay community one of the guys would say

Rub a-dub, dub
Thanks for the grub!