Saying Grace

Many years ago, I was invited to join a church group of Polynesian people for a Sunday meal. Before the meal began, the group sang their grace. I shall never forget the sound of that sung prayer: exquisitely sweet, bell-like, unified, loving.

When I was a child, my father said grace every day before we ate: "Come Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let this food to us be blessed." This prayer was a bit mechanical, perhaps, yet it marked a moment of stillness and of being together.

Prayer before a meal is a universal expression of gratitude. Graces can probably be found in the written or oral traditions of just about every culture on earth. Nourishment, sustenance, both physical and spiritual, is a gift -- whether merited or not -- from the Divine. So, at its most basic, table grace is a thank-you prayer for the blessing of having food, manna, for another day.

Meals are also an opportunity for a family, nuclear or extended, to be gathered together. Thus, this prayer is also an acknowledgment and expression of gratitude for the blessings of family and hospitality. The Divine is often recognized as an unseen guest at the table.

This moment of grateful prayer is an opportunity to pause and come into a fuller awareness of all that surrounds us, including the embrace of the Divine. It could be seen as an instant of "Zen" mindfulness.

Kenneth G. Mills, in a collection of his poems and prayers called Words of Adjustment (Sun-Scape Publications, copyright 1992), described the breaking of bread this way:

"We should break bread together
and share the wonder of wine
and the moment of inspiration
when men who have enough love
can break the frontiers
that would prevent us from Being One."

Author Adrian Butash has gathered 152 graces in his book Bless This Food (New World Library, copyright 1993, 2007). Prayer 148 was written by Father John Giuliani, a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut. It is one of my favorites in this book:

"Bless our hearts
to hear in the
breaking of bread
the song of the universe."

A meal togather is a holy event, one in which to rejoice, give thanks, and bow in awe at the ever-flowing blessings of the divine One.