Grace before meals

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At lunch recently, a co-worker was late to the table, and upon arriving, they looked at the plates and asked “Did we already bless?” Someone replied yes, and then everyone proceeded to dig in.
I guess I never really thought about it…but it struck me. I had always approached praying of grace as a form of thanksgiving only. Clearly the other people had always thought of it only as blessing the food only.
I suppose the prayer says both.
How have you interpreted it in your life?
 
I guess I have always thought of it as giving thanks too. I don’t recall ever hearing that we, as lay people (Catholic lay people) can bless food. Maybe a priest or Deacon can? I ask God to bless my meal for me though. And I can think of a time I had lunch with a Lutheran pastor (I think some kind of reformed Lutheran denomination, go figure) who asked if it was ok with me if he “blessed” the food.
 
Really, it can be both! As examples, here are a few graces I know:

Traditional Catholic Grace
Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive through Thy bounty through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Come Lord Jesus (learned from my daughter)
Come Lord Jesus, be our guest, let this food to us be blessed. Amen.

Johnny Appleseed (traditional camp grace)
Oh, the Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord, for giving me the things I need, the sun and the rain and the appleseed. The Lord is good to me Johnny Appleseed. Amen.

Superman Grace (sung to the Superman theme song; learned at youth group retreat)
Thank you God for giving us food. Thank you God for giving us food. For the food that we eat, and the people that we meet, thank you God for giving us food.

Flintstones Grace (sung to the Flintstones theme song; also from youth group retreat)
God is great and God is good and so we thank Him for our food. (x 2) Amen, amen, amen, amen. God is great and God is good and so we thank Him for our, we thank Him for our, we thank Him for our food.

For Health and Strength
For health and strength and daily food we praise Thy Name O Lord.

In terms of actually blessing food, this is usually only done by a deacon or a priest (I think). Usually, this is done at Easter time - it is traditional in some parishes for people to bring Easter bread, Easter eggs, and children’s Easter baskets to be blessed on Holy Saturday.
 
I thought of it as blessing, but it really should be both blessing and thanksgiving.
 
Then there’s the prayer that I like to offer after meals:

Dear Lord, that was GOOD! THANK You!

😃
 
If I miss the “group grace,” I always say it individually before eating, or if I’m in a group of people who don’t normally pray before eating. Did this person just go ahead and eat without praying? That would seem odd to me (though not necessarily wrong). The thanksgiving aspect of saying grace is probably more prevalent for me, although I do use the traditional Catholic grace at meals.
 
Yes, she started eating without the head bow, 🙂
We generally eat with a priest or deacon, and the Deacon always says “shall we bless?”
But again, the lay people never stop to pray individually if the answer is “we already blessed”. I realize the prayer says both, but I am always amazed that if the blessing was said once, people don’t think it necessary to offer individual thanks, that’s all.
Therefore, I concluded that I had been viewing as very one-sided…meaning only a thanks, and not necessarily an actual blessing of the food. When in truth, it is both.
😊
 
pianistclare said:
Yes, she started eating without the head bow, 🙂
We generally eat with a priest or deacon, and the Deacon always says “shall we bless?”
But again, the lay people never stop to pray individually if the answer is “we already blessed”. I realize the prayer says both, but I am always amazed that if the blessing was said once, people don’t think it necessary to offer individual thanks, that’s all.
Therefore, I concluded that I had been viewing as very one-sided…meaning only a thanks, and not necessarily an actual blessing of the food. When in truth, it is both.
😊
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Interesting. That’s not the phrasing one would use around here - it’s usually, “say grace” or “pray grace.”

Learn something new every day…🙂
 
I recomend you read a book by Father Leo Patalinhug ( I hope I wrote thst right) anyway it’s called Grace before meals lol! It talks about this issue and actually it’s a whole mivement he has going on. Look him up on youtube as well he is also known as the cooking priest.
 
The thanksgiving is more explicit in the prayer after meals, don’t you think?

Before: Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

After: We give Thee thanks for all Thy benefits, O Almighty God, who livest and reigns forever. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
 
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