I need a short, simple before-meal prayer that DD5 can lead

[melissel]

Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm not looking for anything that has to be sung or anything silly--just something simple and sweet. (And I'm not sure if it matters, but something Catholic-friendly, though I can't imagine what there would be in a mealtime prayer to offend!)

 

TIA!

[Wheres Toto]

Here are the ones we always did as kids. My mother is Catholic.

 

"God is great, God is good, Let us Thank Him for this food. Bless this food to our bodies and us to thy service. Amen"

 

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

 

Sorry about the wacked out capitalization. I wasn't sure where to go with all of it. :tongue_smilie:

[eternalknot]

My five year old memorized the standard table blessing he learned from his Catholic family in no time at all, a few years ago. Would that work?

 

Bless us, O Lord for these Thy gifts which we are about to receive ... (that one) ...

 

if not that one, maybe a simple but heartfelt:

Thank you Lord for the food on our table and the friends/family around it. Amen.

 

There's always this one LOL:

Good friends, good meat, good grief, let's eat!

 

:)

[forty-two]

We do what is apparently the standard Lutheran table prayer, though I've no idea how it came to be :tongue_smilie::

 

Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let thy gifts to us be blessed. Amen.

 

(And can you believe I totally blanked on it and actually had to google "lutheran table prayer" to jog my memory :glare:.)

[Luckymama]

We use the "God is great..." daily. Growing up, my parents preferred the "Bless us, O Lord..." prayer.

 

Then there's "Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub. Yea God!" that makes an occasional appearance :D

[knit247]

Not Catholic, but we say three at our house - as each DD has a favorite & DH & I have ours:

 

Breakfast:

Thank You for the world so sweet.

Thank You for the food we eat.

Thank You for the birds that sing.

Thank You, God for everything.

 

Lunch:

God is great...

 

Dinner:

Come, Lord Jesus, our Guest to be,

And bless these gifts, bestowed by Thee.

Bless our loved ones everywhere,

And keep them in Thy loving care.

Amen.

[amyable]

We typically do the "Bless us O Lord, and these thy gifts..." that someone posted above, but we shake it up everyone once in awhile with:

 

"A, B, C, D, E, F, G....thank you God for feeding me."

 

and

 

"For every cup and plateful, God make us truly grateful, Amen."

[kokotg]

DS used to say this one:

 

God we thank you for this food

For rest and home and all things good

For wind and rain and sun above

But most of all for those we love

 

I think it's from that Songs and Prayers for the Very Young book that Eloise Wilkin illustrated.

[Melinda in VT]

This may be too interfaith for what you want, but we use this one:

 

We are grateful for this meal, the work of many hands and the sharing of other forms of life.

[missionarymom]

We used to say this in our family when I was a kid (I believe it's Moravian - we're not Moravian, but I'm pretty sure my great-grandfather was, that's probably why we said it):

 

"Come, Lord Jesus, our Guest to be

Bless these gifts, bestowed by Thee."

[SilverMoon]

Bless this food on my plate, that is all 'cause I can't wait!

 

My 5yo uses the line from Madeleine and tacks a "Thankyou Jesus!" at the end. "We love our bread, we love our butter, but most of all we love each other." Complete with French accent.

 

My older kids' favorite when they were little was sung to the tune of Frere Jacque.

Thankyou Father, Thankyou Father

For our food, for our food

We are very thankful so very very thankful

Thankyou God, Thankyou God

 

Their favorite now probably wouldn't classify as sweet. They sing that one to the rhythm from Queen's We Will Rock You. Whack-the-table, whack-the-table, clap! They still giggle over the memory of catching a quietly reverent grandmother off guard with that one.

[LBS]

We used the first two lines of the "Come Lord Jesus" blessing, till old enough to be able to add the 3rd and 4th lines. The person blessing got to say if you held hands, or held hands with arms crossed....we were not Moravian but thought that blessing was Moravian.

 

LBS

 

PS Also, may people say, in line 4, "loving care" and my Mother always said "tender care" so the child saying the blessing had that option to personalize also.

[laundrycrisis]

My stepdad yells "Good bread, good meat....Good God, let's eat !" :lol:

[ereks mom]

Then we all say, "Amen." We pray before every meal, even in restaurants. (It's not unusual here in the South.)

 

When I was a kid, my sister & I always recited, "God is great..." until one day when were were teens, our dad finally said, "It's time to retire the kiddie blessing and pray from the heart." I think that's why we never did teach our kids the cute little recitations; we would rather that they pray a heartfelt prayer than to memorize something to "perform". (But please don't take that as a criticism of you for wanting your dc to learn a proper blessing.)

Edited November 22, 2010 by ereks mom

[forty-two]

I think that's why we never did teach our kids the cute little recitations; we would rather that they pray a heartfelt prayer than to memorize something to "perform".

A bit OT, but memorized prayers can be said from the heart, too :). Just because I didn't make it up from whole cloth doesn't mean it has no meaning for me ;).

[Beach Mom]

Thank you God for home and school

(or as my kids now say home and homeschool)

Rain and sunny weather.

Thank you for this food to eat

And that we are together.

[Mrs.Gregg]

I found this site recently

 

http://home.pcisys.net/~tbc/mealpryr.htm

 

My girls have been having fun learning new prayers.

[Parrothead]

Another vote for "Bless us o, Lord..."

[specialmama]

My son memorized this: it's not silly or cute but to the point and sincere:

 

Dear God, thank you for this food and please bless our bodies with it. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

[scrapbookbuzz]

This is a short, rhyming prayer that we said before meal all.the.time while I was growing up. And it's easy enough for a 5 year old:

 

God is Great,

God is Good,

And we thank You

for our food.

Amen!

[Soror]

The kids do "Bless us and these thy gifts....." My 3.5 and 6 y.o. both have had this memorized for awhile.

[swellmomma]

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

 

 

 

This is the one we said before snacks at the daycare I worked at in a Catholic school.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

My 3 yo can manage "Thank you God for all this wonderful food. Amen."

[susankenny]

God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands we are fed. Thank you for our daily bread. Amen.

 

or

 

(Singing)... God our Father. God our Father. We thank you. We thank you. For our many blessings. For our many blessings. Amen. Amen.

Edited November 22, 2010 by susankenny

[Chris in VA]

Our family prayer is

Thank you, Jesus, for this good day and this good food. Amen.

 

On special occasions, we pray more spontaneously.

 

On Thanksgiving, we each have 3 kernels of popcorn by our plates, and we go around the table naming 3 blessings. Then we conclude with a little prayer.

[gaillardia]

When I was that age I said:

"Thank you, God, for milk and bread and other things so good.

And thank you, God, for those who helped to grow and cook our food.

In Jesus' name, amen."

[SnowWhite]

Our family traditional blessing (we often recite in unison) when we're not doing a heart felt spontaneous prayer (which is often) is this:

 

Thank You for the food,

Thank You for the day,

Thanks for all things good,

To You Dear Lord we pray. Amen.

Which was then amended to In Jesus Name we Pray when we decided to include the Lord's name in all our prayers.