Prayer Before Meals

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OK Prayer Warriors, I need your help! My family has said the following prayer before meals for as long as I can remember. We say it immediately after the traditional “Bless Us O Lord” prayer. Has anyone here heard of this prayer? Can anyone tell me where this prayer comes from?

“Dear Lord, nourish our souls with your Grace as we nourish our bodies with this food”

Thank you in advance for your help! 🙂
 
We always said the “Bless us O Lord” but not the latter, which is a wonderful addition to the prayer, spiritualizing the shared meal more deeply! I wish we’d thought of it!
May God bless you for your reminder, as you may prompt a return or a beginning of this blessed custom amongst other members.
 
Afraid I can’t give you a definite answer, but …

I was googling with different variations of “nourish” “bodies” “souls” “grace” and “food” and noticed that there are many variations of this prayer out there. I get the feeling that it may not be possible to track down the source of this precise version of the prayer, but that the themes of it - the balance of nourishing our bodies with nourishing our souls go back a long, long way.

For instance - check out this link: home.pcisys.net/~tbc/mealpryr.htm
Apparently an Anglican mailing list compiled a bunch of different versions of prayers before meals. The first thing that struck me is how many variations of your prayer are on that list. The second thing I thought was that if this is a prayer that is prayed today in both Catholic and Anglican circles, then it’s roots must certainly go back more than 500 years!

“Food for thought” anyway (please pardon the pun)!
 
@ Trishie, I hope you can use that prayer and spread it around. It is a very nice addition. 🙂

@ pachomius, I did a lot of the same ‘Googling’ and at one point found that same list. Great minds think alike eh? :cool:

Thank you both for the responses!
 
O God! Dispel all those elements which are the cause of discord, and prepare for us all those things which are the cause of unity and accord! O God! Descend upon us Heavenly Fragrance and change this gathering into a gathering of Heaven! Grant to us every benefit and every food. Prepare for us the Food of Love! Give to us the Food of Knowledge! Bestow upon us the Food of Heavenly Illumination!

Also, I would like to say a prayer for Sister Marguerite:

NAVAJO, N.M. (Nov. 3) - A nun has been found dead in her residence at a church in a small community on the Navajo Indian reservation near the Arizona-New Mexico border, the FBI said Monday.
Sister Marguerite Bartz, 64, was one of more than a dozen Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament who are currently ministering within the Diocese of Gallup, which spans 55,000square miles in New Mexico and Arizona.

O my God! O Thou forgiver of sins, bestower of gifts, dispeller of afflictions!
Verily, I beseech Thee to forgive the sins of such as have abandoned the physical garment and have ascended to the spiritual world.
O my Lord! Purify them from trespasses, dispel their sorrows, and change their darkness into light. Cause them to enter the garden of happiness, cleanse them with the most pure water, and grant them to behold Thy splendors on the loftiest mount.
 
We pray that at my house as well (Bless us, O Lord …). I learned it in grade school but I don’t know where it originated from. I have never heard of the second part.
 
The second part is a beautiful prayer, but I’m afraid I don’t know where it comes from. Maybe you could ask a priest.
 
ready said:
The second part is a beautiful prayer, but I’m afraid I don’t know where it comes from. Maybe you could ask a priest.
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ready, were you commenting about my previous post? Plase clarify.
 
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