"Grace Before Meat"
The two prayers under this heading in the 1928 Prayer Book were carried into the 1979, unchanged in their wording but under a different heading. They are now forms of “Grace at Meals”: “at” rather than “before,” perhaps in recognition that a mealtime thanksgiving could come at the end as well as the beginning.
Give us grateful hearts, our Father, for all thy mercies, and make us mindful of the needs of others; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or:
Bless, O Lord, thy gifts to our use and us to thy service; for Christ's sake. Amen.
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What strikes me first is my own sloppy remembrance of the particular words of these prayers (“our Father,” for instance: a rather neat way of having the Lord’s Prayer echo in the background). More substantively, though, is the posture of dependence upon God. This is dependence not only for the food we have before us, but also dependence for the attitude we have towards that food. We recognize that our hearts may not be grateful—so we ask God to make them so. We recognize too that we may be eating in ignorance of others’ need—so we ask God to give us proper mindfulness.
The second grace (second in the 1979 order) sets forth a continuing ratio of dependence. The food we are eating is identified as God’s “gifts” and we ask that they be put “to our use.” The point of the food is to be useful to us. In parallel: we are to be useful to God. Our prayer is that just as the food is to be blessed (dedicated) to our use, so we are to be blessed (dedicated) to God’s use—his service.
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In 1928 it was already an antique usage, to speak of food as “meat.” In the old sense, “meat” was any food. That usage survives today in “mincemeat,” which is usually various fruits that have been “minced,” cut into small pieces. “Thou givest them their meat in due season” the old Psalm said of God’s providence: he gives us the food (= “meat”) we need as we need it.
You know me, dear reader. I like the old words. It is not anti-vegetarian to pray “Grace Before Meat,” it is just stubborn antiquarianism.
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In these simple grace prayers, we find basic mysteries of created life. God is the source of everything, including the things we labor to acquire, and including the attitudes of our heart—which is true but does not take away our responsibility! And we are to be useful to God, in a manner that is similar to the usefulness of food to us. Since we are capable of love and choice, our usefulness takes the form of service to God.
Such great mysteries in such simple words! What is left to say? Perhaps two more words: bon appetit!
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On the Web. Just up: a short piece by yours truly on “The Gift of Age.”
“The room is not quite big enough for everyone who has come. In her reclining chair, the 95-year-old woman takes it all in, with smiles. Her hearing is spotty, her eyesight rather darkened, and her walker ever close to hand. But she is full of delight, for gathered around her on the floor are many of her descendants: a son, a grandson and his wife, and great-grandchildren ranging from sixteen years of age down to one.
“The children have been primed to ask her questions about what it was like when she was a girl. They know she grew up on a farm. A perky young fellow asks her about ‘poop.’ This has to be translated. Unfazed, she describes an outhouse—everyone had one in those days. . . .”
You can find the whole thing here: https://humanlifereview.com/the-gift-of-age/