Is table grace before meals related to the Eucharist?

[josephback]

Does anybody know if there’s a connection in the custom?

 

[ComplineSanFran]

Does anybody know if there’s a connection in the custom?

Virtually all faith traditions offer blessings before meals, but most likely Christian blessings come from Jewish blessings. Here’s a good site to explain what the different Jewish prayers are.

chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/278538/jewish/Basic-Blessings-on-Food-Guide.htm

 

[brian_custer]

when “i” say grace before a meal i am simply giving thanks to God for the food i am about to shovel into my stomach

i never thought that christian grace had anything to do w/ the Eucharist at Holy MASS…

 

[TheTrinitySaves]

I see. So no C.S. Lewis. Nor any of the Eastern / Coptic saints. Nor the Cappadocians. I am very partial to Gregory of Nyssa and Macrina and was sincerely hoping to see them in heaven.

Nor I guess Martin Luther King, nor will we see George Frideric Handel conducting the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’… nor will we have the honor of seeing John Donne nor the wonderful mystic Evelyn Underhill. I’m sure that Dietrich Bonhoeffer will be sad he is not with our Lord. Composer John Tavener recently died and his music is sung in many churches; I understand he was a devout and holy man.

How very sad to hear this news.

 

[Matt241]

As a matter-of-fact, the prayer of the priest just before the Consecration “Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation…” is based on ancient Jewish table prayers. There’s the connection between Mass and meals.

 

[AnneElizabeth]

As a matter-of-fact, the prayer of the priest just before the Consecration “Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation…” is based on ancient Jewish table prayers. There’s the connection between Mass and meals.

Yes, but this part of the mass was one of the added words when changes were made to the litergy when the new mass was promulgated. It was not a part of the original mass.

 

[Reuben_J]

I have not heard that grace before meal is related to the Eucharist though I would like to know if it is so.

Grace is what it is, “Bless us O Lord and this thy gift which we are about to received from your bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

I think it is self-explained:

Before we partake of the meal - to ask God to bless us and the food so that it will become holy and good nutrition for us.

We acknowledge that the food that is laid on the table is God’s providence and obtained in His good pleasure.

And that Jesus is our Lord by whom we are saved.

Finally, and so it will be.

 

[pianistclare]

As a matter-of-fact, the prayer of the priest just before the Consecration “Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation…” is based on ancient Jewish table prayers. There’s the connection between Mass and meals.

Yes. Quite right.

 

[dallas_r]

Jesus gave thanks twice I think before he broke the bread. Maybe not the grace before meals prayer exactly but he said gave thanks like how we give thanks when we receive meals. So by saying grace before meals we are being like Jesus when he broke the Bread. Might not be the answer you were looking for but I tried lol.

 

[psalm90]

Does anybody know if there’s a connection in the custom?

The writing of Scott Hahn on the sacraments show how the Eucharist is a thanksgiving in itself, but I’m not

Table grace is an extension of the “preface” prayer in the Mass, where the priest intones that it is right that we should always and everywhere give God thanks and praise through Jesus Christ.

I’ve read in Jewish sources that they pray AFTER meal, because it is too difficult to concentrate properly in prayer when one is hungry.

So customs only go so far as they help us to pray as we ought – to prayer everywhere at all times.

 

[thistle]

Does anybody know if there’s a connection in the custom?

Modern Catholic Dictionary:

GRACE AT MEALS. A prayer of invocation before eating and gratitude after eating, acknowledging the divine goodness and recognizing one’s total dependence, even for food and drink, on God.

 

[josephback]

Thanks everybody.