Bless This Food

Saying grace before a meal is one of the most common and universal forms of spoken prayer, the one sacrament many of us hold onto after others have faded from use. The following blessings were posted by Beliefnet members. They range from familiar to innovative, pious to pithy (for folks in a hurry).

Though we are a Christian family having Japanese roots we love a Buddhist blessing. Translated it is something like this: "For every grain of rice we are thankful for 1000s of workers. For every drop of rain we are thankful for God's blessings. Amen."

-toddb

My favorite is a simple Jewish prayer, "Blessed art thou O Lord my G-d, King of the universe, who brings forth the bread from the earth".

-LeoBesser  

Before the meal we pray: "Come Lord Jesus, Be our guest, And let these gifts to us be blest. Amen." Following the meal we pray: "We thank thee Lord for meat and drink, In Jesus' name we pray."

-lutherrocks 

Creator, Sustainer and Life-giver, Bless this food to our use, and us to your service, make us grateful for all your mercies, and mindful of the needs of others. Amen.

-BeliefnetMember 

An old Scottish blessing: Some hae meat and cannae eat. Some nae meat but want it. We hae meat and we can eat and sae the Lord be thankit. Translated: Some have meat and cannot eat. Some no meat but want it. We have meat and we can eat and [so the Lord be thanked].

-etaggel

We start dinner by all holding hands and saying "Bless us O Lord and for These Thy Gifts which we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful. Amen." If we want to add a special prayer we say "Father God we thank you for all your good gifts and blessings and we want to lift up (name) to you." Amen.

-Barbat11

Continued on page 2: More wonderful blessings! »