Table Prayer #1

Creator God, fashion together the working of our hands. You bathe the earth with waters that nourish the soil and shower us with heavenly light. Use our hands to pluck up and to plant, to sort and sift the fruits of our labors. Knit together all farmers, gatherers, and chefs who provide for us our daily food. And keep us ever-mindful of those who will go hungry on this day. Amen.

Commentary: I believe that many individuals within the U.S. have fallen into a consumerism mentality. It is so easy to dash off to a 24 hour grocery store for whatever craving that hits us. We pull that package of cookies (or whatever else we crave) off the shelf, we break the “freshness seal” and devour the entire contents and often cannot remember the following day what we had just eaten.

My prayer attempts to reorient our minds to those hands, both physical and spiritual, who have provided for us our daily food. It begins by acknowledging our gifts from God to the hands of farmers and those (often underpaid immigrant workers) who collect what has been sown. It blesses the craft and artistry of chefs and calls us to be mindful of those who have limited or no access to daily food.