{"id":38,"date":"2011-05-13T07:45:17","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T11:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/awakeintheworld\/?p=38"},"modified":"2011-05-17T07:54:45","modified_gmt":"2011-05-17T11:54:45","slug":"the-grace-of-saying-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2011\/05\/the-grace-of-saying-grace.html","title":{"rendered":"The Grace of Saying Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I was a child, not a meal passed when we didn\u2019t \u201csay grace.\u201d Someone , usually my father, would take a meaningful pause. We would all bow our heads and he would begin, \u201cThank you for this meal that you have put before us.\u201d The prayer only lasted a minute and as a child I found it mostly an annoying ritual that delayed my dinner. On the big occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas, granddad had the honors and saying grace was more solemn and potent. Today I grapple with how to incorporate this into a daily routine. Sometimes with friends who also feel deeply spiritual one of us will say a prayer, chant or mantra before we begin to eat. Though we are of different religious backgrounds, Sikh, Hindu and Christian, we pray to the one God with many forms.<\/p>\n<p>But in public and with friends and colleagues who don\u2019t seem particularly interested in spiritual practice I pause before eating and repeat words of gratitude silently to myself. Sometimes my table companions recognize the pause, but most of the time they\u2019re absorbed in other things and don\u2019t. Saying grace in the traditional sense means, \u201ca short prayer before or after a meal in which a blessing is asked for and thanks given,\u201d according to Webster\u2019s Unabridged Dictionary. The word grace derives from Middle English and Old French. It probably reaches back to Latin and we hear it in romance languages. In Italian the words for \u201cthank you\u201d are closely related to grace. They are \u201cgrazie\u201d and in Spanish it becomes \u201cgracias.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During meals today, take a moment to remember the Divine. Say grace in whatever way or form appeals to you. Pause before the meal and enjoy the scents and sights of the food. Consider the hands that prepared it and the Earth that gave birth to it. Food connects us to many people in the process of getting to our tables. By saying grace and being thankful for the food, the blessings extend out to all who helped bring it to you.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/~\/media\/F5AECFED507D4486B2C492FC3E201CCE.ashx?w=333&amp;h=250\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"250\" \/><strong>Bio: <\/strong>Debra Moffitt is author of <em><a title=\"Awake in the World Book \" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Awake-World-Practices-Divinely-Inspired\/dp\/0738727229\" target=\"_blank\">Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life<\/a> (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2011). <\/em>She  is devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life.\u00a0 Debra leads  workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other  venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind\/body\/spirit articles, essays and  stories appear in publications around the world and were broadcast by  BBC World Services Radio. Find out more at: <a title=\"Awake in the World Website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.awakeintheworld.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/awakeintheworld.com<\/a> and<a title=\"Debra Moffitt Website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.debramoffitt.com\" target=\"_blank\"> http:\/\/www.debramoffitt.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I was a child, not a meal passed when we didn\u2019t \u201csay grace.\u201d Someone , usually my father, would take a meaningful pause. We would all bow our heads and he would begin, \u201cThank you for this meal that you have put before us.\u201d The prayer only lasted a minute and as a child&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":409,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4,13,3],"tags":[14,16,1178,15],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-inspiration","category-prayer","category-spiritual-practice","tag-grace","tag-gratitude","tag-prayer","tag-thankfulness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Grace of Saying Grace - Awake in the World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Grace of Saying Grace - Awake in the World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was a child, not a meal passed when we didn\u2019t \u201csay grace.\u201d Someone , usually my father, would take a meaningful pause. We would all bow our heads and he would begin, \u201cThank you for this meal that you have put before us.\u201d The prayer only lasted a minute and as a child&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2011\/05\/the-grace-of-saying-grace.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Awake in the World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-13T11:45:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-17T11:54:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/~\/media\/F5AECFED507D4486B2C492FC3E201CCE.ashx?w=333&amp;h=250\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"debramoffitt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Grace of Saying Grace - Awake in the World","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Grace of Saying Grace - Awake in the World","og_description":"When I was a child, not a meal passed when we didn\u2019t \u201csay grace.\u201d Someone , usually my father, would take a meaningful pause. 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A visionary and teacher, she\u2019s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind\/body\/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. 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