Your favorite grace to say before meals?

[ktgrok]

We've slacked off on this and I want to start up again. What do you say?

[Mrs Mungo]

When my kids were little we said/sang these (we still do in groups):

 

Back of the bread is the flour,

Back of the flour is the mill.

Back of the mill is the wind and the rain

And the Father's will.

 

 

(this is called the Johnny Appleseed prayer)

Oh the Lord is good to me,

And so I thank the Lord,

For giving me the things I need,

The sun and the raid and the apple seed.

Oh, the Lord is good to me.

[Parrothead]

Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts

which we are about to receive from Thy bounty

through Christ our Lord.

Amen

[Joker]

My kiddos still do the

 

God is good

God is great

Let us thank You for our food

Amen

[Caitilin]

I like these:

 

Bless, O Lord, before we dine

Each dish of food, each glass of wine;

And bless our hearts that we may be

Aware of what we owe to Thee.

 

 

 

Lord, bless the food upon these dishes

As Thou didst bless the loaves and fishes.

And like the sugar in our tea,

May all of us be stirred by Thee.

 

But in actuality we say the traditional Catholic table-grace that Parrothead shared. :)

[Sugarfoot]

 

(this is called the Johnny Appleseed prayer)

Oh the Lord is good to me,

And so I thank the Lord,

For giving me the things I need,

The sun and the raid and the apple seed.

Oh, the Lord is good to me.

 

Our priest likes to sing this one.:D

 

 

But in actuality we say the traditional Catholic table-grace that Parrothead shared. :)

 

This is what we say daily, except in Latin.

[mjpeter]

Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts

which we are about to receive from Thy bounty

through Christ our Lord.

Amen

 

Our family, too. :001_smile:

 

We are in the midst of learning it in Latin! We thought it would be fun to surprise everyone at Thanksgiving.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We say the very uninspired,

 

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for this food.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

[GWOB]

We have our kids say grace. DD10 says an improvised prayer of thanks. DS7 recites the Lord's Prayer. Don't know why he says the Lord's Prayer, but we just roll with it. I've considered saying Luther's Table Prayer, which is basically the Catholic prayer without the "thees" and "thous." We just figured God knows what we mean with whatever words we say.

[4besitos]

Traditional Grace that Parrothead posted....and sometimes in Latin like Sugarfoot. I let my oldest son lead the Latin...his is soooo much better than mine!!!

[Mabeline]

We say the prayer I learned in school and said every day in k-8th grades.

 

Come Lord Jesus,

Be our guest,

Let these gifts

to us be blessed.

Amen

[Parrothead]

I had not idea there were so many rhyming meal prayers.

[ElizabethB]

We usually sing, it's a round:

 

God our Father, God our Father,

Once again, once again,

Thank you for our blessing, Thank you for our blessing,

Ah-ah-men, ah-ah-men.

 

It is to the tune of:

 

Frere Jacques

Frere Jacques

Dormez-vous?

Dormez-vous?

Sonnez les matines

Sonnez les matines

Din din don

Din din don

 

English version:

Are you sleeping

Are you sleeping

Brother John?

Brother John?

Morning bells are ringing

Morning bells are ringing

Ding ding dong

Ding ding dong

 

Our 5 year old likes to say:

 

Dear Lord, thank you for our food, and help everyone. Amen. (Short, but covers everyone!!)

[TheCoffeeChick]

Come, Lord Jesus

Be our guest,

And let these gifts

to us be blessed.

Let there be

A goodly share

On every table,

Everywhere. Amen.

[Beach Mom]

My favorite that my kids said when they were younger:

 

Thank you God for home and school,

Rain and sunny weather.

Thank you for the food we eat

And that we are together.

 

(Sometimes if they say it now, they say "Home and homeschool") :001_smile:

[Sophia]

We don't follow a script, just say thanks for the food, always say thanks for the hands that prepared our food, and if it's the dc asking the blessing, they always throw in thanks for something that has happened that day.

[The Girls' Mom]

It varies. We just don't say scripted prayers really. The kids take turns blessing our meals.

 

Usually goes something like this:

 

Dear Lord,

Thank you for this Day

Thank you for the food you've given us

Please help it nourish our bodies

Amen.

 

And if we are thinking of someone that needs prayer, or have a specific praise, it's added in too.

 

One of our kids, when dinner was something she liked she would say "thank you for this food", but when it was something she didn't like she would say "please bless this food" :lol:

[Pamela H in Texas]

Interesting to see how people do. I remember a few from childhood (God is great...), but those were generally for lunch or whatever, not for family meals, get togethers, etc.

 

We don't use prepared prayers due to scriptural counsel. Meal prayers may typically be shorter, but not SUPER short as we still pray in the manner Jesus taught so we cover some basics (sanctification of God's name, for God's Kingdom, etc...).

[JudoMom]

We don't follow a script, just say thanks for the food, always say thanks for the hands that prepared our food, and if it's the dc asking the blessing, they always throw in thanks for something that has happened that day.

 

This is what we do as well. However, my boys almost always end their prayers with "and help everyone to have a good time tonight and no one to get hurt" :lol:. (and we eat late-ish, and normally do read alouds & family time and then go to bed, so I don't know what they think will happen!)

[Jumping In Puddles]

Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts

which we are about to receive from Thy bounty

through Christ our Lord.

Amen

 

We say the same one but we start it a little differently:

 

We thank the O Lord for these Thy gifts

which we are about to receive from Thy bounty

through Christ, our Lord

Amen

 

My ds came home from CCD with a little book of prayers and the way you recite it is in the book. I don't know how it got changed in our family - I've been saying it that way since I could talk and its hard to change!

[SonshineLearner]

We say the Latin Table Blessing, since my son (now 7) insisted on learning it when he was 3. He leads most often. Sometimes my husband just "prays" and then ends it with something that reminds me of his Catholic upbringing. (Just the way he ends it :)

[Ferdie]

We don't follow a script, just say thanks for the food, always say thanks for the hands that prepared our food, and if it's the dc asking the blessing, they always throw in thanks for something that has happened that day.

 

Ditto. We just pray.

[aggieamy]

Add us to the list of families that use the traditional Catholic prayer. Of course, you better believe I'm googling the Latin version and learning that one to suprise my family with once I learn it. Awesome idea.

[Rich with Kids]

Ditto. We just pray.

 

Same here...

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

"Thank you for all your blessings. Amen"

[Giraffe]

We don't follow a script, just say thanks for the food, always say thanks for the hands that prepared our food, and if it's the dc asking the blessing, they always throw in thanks for something that has happened that day.

 

This is what DH does.

 

My grandfather said "Thank the Lord for dinner. Amen."

 

My dad says "Bless this food to our bodies and us to Thy service. In Christ's name we pray, Amen."

[Gooblink]

Just a heartfelt thank you to God for his gracious provision. :)

[Crissy]

We just pray.

 

Same here.

[duckens]

We wrote our own.

 

We're an unusual family because I am atheist (but grew up fundamentalist Christian) and Loverboy is a less-active Mormon.

 

I wanted something to express thanks to those who actually did the work and to reflect our daily and humble gratefulness that we have such abundance of food; many are hungry even in our own country.

 

 

Loverboy wanted God mentioned.

 

It's also a subtle way to teach little kids to wait politely until everyone is at the table before "digging in."

 

"Thank the Lord; and those who grew, bought, and prepared this food."

 

No one bows their head or closes their eyes, but we join our glasses in "cheers" at the end.

 

What the heck are atheists supposed to do in this situation????

[OLG]

We say the traditional Catholic blessing BUT sometimes the following which my 98y/o Aunt gave us:

 

Dear Lord, please bless these vittles

May they grow our hearts

But not our middles!

 

Mary

[Britomart]

My dad says "Bless this food to our bodies and us to Thy service. In Christ's name we pray, Amen."

 

We use this one frequently; it's from the Book of Common Prayer (Anglican). I love it because it says better what I've said for a long time, which is, "Please bless this food, and may I use the energy I get from it to serve You." But the BCP version is more elegant. :)

 

And sometimes we just pray as we're led, but we also use:

 

We close our eyes

We bow our heads

We thank you, Lord, for our daily bread. Amen.

 

It's a good one for little children because it teaches them the physical actions that traditionally accompany prayer. Also, it gives you a chance to explain that "daily bread" means all of the food we're given, just our normal fare.

[linders]

One night DH was being funny and taught the boys, "Good food, good meat, thank God, let's eat!"

 

And oh, how they love dragging out that one at when we are at a friend's house and they are invited to say grace, as I slide under the table...

[Gwenhwyfar]

 

 

(this is called the Johnny Appleseed prayer)

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 apple seed.

Oh, the Lord is good to me.

 

i remember doing this one at camp - and we'd all scream JOHNNY APPLESEED!! AMEN!! at the top of our lungs after the last line. :laugh:

[GWOB]

One night DH was being funny and taught the boys, "Good food, good meat, thank God, let's eat!"

 

And oh, how they love dragging out that one at when we are at a friend's house and they are invited to say grace, as I slide under the table...

 

I have often been tempted to recite the always-classy "Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub. Yay God," but I usually control myself. Usually.

[ladydusk]

We usually say something to the effect of:

 

"Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the food. Please bless it and use it to nourish our bodies so we might do your will. Amen."

 

My mom likes the "Heavenly Father, Once again" song someone (ElizabethB?) shared, but I like this one better (ETA: oh, her middle line I don't like "We bow our heads and thank you" ... seems like we're talking more about us than our thankfulness):

 

Heavenly Father (echo: Heavenly Father)

Thank you for (echo: thank you for)

Food and Friends and Family (echo: food and friends and family)

Ah-ah-men (echo: ah-ah-men)

 

When I was a kid, we often listed the whole menu in the middle of the prayer (ie thank you for the potato soup and bread and butter and brownies) Sometimes those lists got long :)

 

I like some of the prayers listed here, we might have to do some changing up ;)

Edited September 22, 2010 by ladydusk

[K&Rs Mom]

Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts

which we are about to receive from Thy bounty

through Christ our Lord.

Amen

 

Same here, sometimes English & sometimes Latin. Hearing a 5yo rattle this off in Latin is adorable.

[elise1mds]

We say the prayer I learned in school and said every day in k-8th grades.

 

Come Lord Jesus,

Be our guest,

Let these gifts

to us be blessed.

Amen

 

We usually do this one, because it's the traditional Lutheran dinner prayer I learned growing up, and we alternate with "Bless Us, O Lord," which is the traditional Catholic dinner prayer I learned growing up.

 

Benefits of growing up in a mixed-religion family. :)