Table Graces

[Bruce Michael]

Dear Companions,


I have gathered together the following table graces to enhance your meals. There is a large collection at this site. So you need never get bored at meal time (even if the menu is the same!)

Please share with us if you have a favourite.

I don't know who authored the first three that follow.

-Br.Bruce

Earth who gave to us this food
Sun who made it ripe and good
Dear Earth, dear Sun
By you we live
To you our loving thanks we give.

***

For the golden corn and the apples on the trees
For the golden butter and the honey from the bees
For fruits and nuts and berries that grow beside
the way
We praise your love and kindness and thank you
every day, Hooray.

***
Sun, Earth and air,
Have wrought by God's care
That the plants may live and bear.
Praising God for this food
In Truth live we would,
Bearing Beauty and Good.

***

The plant seeds are quickened in the night of the Earth,
The green herbs are sprouting through the might of the Air,
And all fruits are ripened by the power of the Sun.

So quickens the soul in the shrine of the Heart,
So blossoms Spirit-power in the light of the World,
So ripens Man's strength in the glory of God.

-R. Steiner

***

The bread alone is not our food.
What feeds us in the bread
Is God's eternal Word,
Is Spirit and is Life.

-Angelus Silesius

***

That which I do take for myself, unto myself,
That which does sustain me:
Be it filled with the fire from the Twelve,
And so divinely imbued,
That I may tolerate life, and life shall tolerate me.

Amen
-The Brothers

[InLove]

Thanks, Bruce. Here is another. I know it has been somewhat adapted from the original, but I think it is beautiful nonetheless.

Iroquois Thanksgiving Prayer

We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us.
We return thanks to the rivers and streams, which supply us with water.
We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases.
We return thanks to the moon and stars, which have given to us their light when the sun was gone.
We return thanks to the sun, that has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye.
We return thanks to the Great Spirit, in Whom is embodied all goodness, and Who directs all things for the good of Her children.

And while this is not a table grace, it is one of my favorite blessings. Adapted as well, but retains the essence.

Cherokee Prayer Blessing

May the Warm Winds of Heaven
Blow softly upon your house.
May the Great Spirit
Bless all who enter there.
May your Mocassins
Make happy tracks
In many snows,
And may the Rainbow
Always touch your shoulder.

InPeace,
InLove

[Snoopy]

The only one I can recall is in the Simpsons where Bart is required (can't remember why) to say grace before dinner. It goes something like this:

"Dear Lord, we bought this food ourselves so thanks for nothing. Amen."



s.

[Snoopy]

OK so that was flippant. How about…


“This food is the gift of the whole universe - the earth, the sky, and much hard work. May we live in a way that makes us worthy to receive it. May we transform our unskillful states of mind, especially our greed. May we take only foods that nourish us and prevent illness. We accept this food so that we may realise the path of practice.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh