Wednesday, November 26, 2008
On this day of thanks giving as we are gathered here together as a family in your presence. We are grateful to be here on this beautiful earth with this bounty of plenty before us. You have graced our table with the outpourings of your love and benevolence through the nourishing food before us, the life-giving and pleasurable wine we drink and toast with, and the uniquely beautiful persons sitting beside us who share in the joys and sorrows of our lives. As we gather here in celebration of life and family let us remember loved ones not here with us this year whether they be gathered elsewhere or have passed on before us into your kingdom. Let us remember the people whose hands have toiled and labored to provide us with constant influx of nourishment. Let us remember others who will not be gathered around tables with their families this year as they faithfully serve our country overseas. Let us remember and lift up to you their safety and those whom are lonely, feeling unloved, homeless and unfed today. We remember that these gifts you have bestowed upon us are also our responsibility and that we too are stewards of this good earth and that we are called to share our gifts, our love with others. We take this task seriously and give you thanks for giving us life, nourishment, family, friends, love and also the ability to transform the lives of others through these gifts. Thank you Lord for gracing our table with your presence. Amen.
Reflection
This Thanksgiving I’ll be with my boyfriend’s family rather than my own. They have welcomed me into their family and I hope to be an official member one day, however, as two families, two identities come together some clashes occur occasionally. I wanted to share a prayer with them that would unite all of us together. They have their family, their core family unit of the four of them. Then there is another family unit of his sister and her husband. And another family unit subset of my boyfriend and I. We are all united yet all different also, coming together as one family. I want to bring lightness, hope, joy and love to the presence of our gathering on Thanksgiving day. While bringing these elements to form our family, I also am conscious of those around me in various predicaments and stages of life. I am also aware of how I have been blessed and that this has a double meaning, for blessing brings responsibility too. I hope my Thanksgiving prayer will be well-received by his family and have the atmospheric impact I hope for.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Juanita's Blessing 4th Table Blessing
Almighty God Creator Of The Universe, We give you thanks for the abundance of your creation. We give you thanks for the feast presented before us. We give you thanks for all the people with us who will share the food at this table. Bless our loved ones who cannot be with us today but are with us in spirit. Bless this meal so that it will fill us physically and spiritually. Amen.
This is a general Thanksgiving or table blessing which I give. When giving a table blessing for a special holiday like Thanksgiving, I always remember to include a blessing for those who are absent from the table.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The sun brings water to the land, the water feeds the land, the land and sea feed the inhabitants that tender the land with kindness and treat the sun with respect. The cycle of life- continuous and unbroken, because it is fueled by gratitude. Mutual love and respect for each other bring not only moments to treasure but contentment.I read this in a blog comment that talked about cannabis and its connection to food. Not the munchies, but one person's experience of smoking and cooking as a sacramental act. The commentator sympathized with the post and added that this sacrament and ritual helped them to remain grateful for their food, cannabis and time. I wonder what my ritual food acts are that help me to remain grateful. What are yours?
God of the sun, who brings water to the land, who nourishes the land, who feeds the inhabitants of the land. You are the center of our life that sustains us and binds us together. We are both grateful for your gifts of life and for your reconciliation to one another. Sustain us in our gratitude and mutual love for creation and one another.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Food and Relationships
Thank you for the gift of food and of community. Help us to see the people involved in this food. We are dependent upon others for our food. Make us to know that we do not sit at the table alone, just as we do not sit at your table alone. Give us faith to trust in the communion of the saints and the courage and love to live it out in our lives. May we welcome all people to our tables, just as you welcome us. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I've been thinking about the need for awareness and mindfulness in food choices and their impact upon communities for a few weeks, since our conversation with Shannon Jung. Ellen and Nan's presentation about the ways that food can build community was a helpful resource for encouraging people to be mindful of food and community. Food can bring us together, if we think about all of the people involved in food production, and are willing to step out of our social location to encounter and feed the other.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Grace for Thanksgiving Preparations - Denise
Gracious Lord,
we gather together for a feast of thanksgiving. We
prepare the food that you provide, food that was nurtured by your sunshine,
nourished by your vegetation, grown to the service of our bodies that will now
consume it in gratitude. Be in our preparations, that every morsel conveys
the love that we have for each other. Be in our conversations, that every
sharing adds to our joy. Be in our digestion that our bodies will be made
whole and healthy in our meal together. Strengthen us through this food
that we will grow to love more deeply, enjoy more genuinely and care more
profoundly for all that you have made. Thank you. Amen.
This grace is meant to be said before the preparations for a Thanksgiving meal. It is heavily influenced by J. Shannon Jung’s book “Sharing Food” and the discussion about jouissance. It seemed appropriate to say grace before the preparations since, in my family, we gather as a group to prepare together. The preparations are as much a part of the celebration for us as the actual meal, and just as meaningful, since our thoughts wander to those who will visit and our prayers surround them in whatever they face in life.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Michelle prayer #3
Your child feasted with whoever would welcome him,
Teach us to enjoy our food & the company in which he eat it.
The child you gave me delights in sharing what is on her plate with those around her.
Teach us to delight in sharing your abundance with those far and near.
Amen.
I can't get away with addressing God as source of abundance, Jung reinforces that for me. Jesus' party animal ways have been on my mind lately, and I am also amazed at my one-year-old's grasp of what we make so difficult- food is to be shared. She protests when we eat and don't share with her, and whenever she eats she offers us back of whatever we have put on her plate. and with a huge smile.
Table Blessing #3 - Emily Klock
We thank you for
for the food before us,
the friends beside us,
the love between us,
and your spirit among us.
Amen.
This is the table prayer that we pray whenever we have guests at our house (with no guests we pray "Come Lord Jesus be our guest, let this home and food be blessed"). We first learned this prayer at a church family retreat, and it started when we would have church friends over because they also knew the prayer.
One thing that I love about this prayer is that it moves from the obvious to the deeper blessings for which we are grateful. It is the Spirit that allows us to share the love of friends and family. Our own experience of sharing it with our church family makes it especially sentimental for me.
Keith's Table Grace #3
Bless, O Lord, the hands...
Bless the hands that broke the soil, and scattered the seed, that pulled the weeds, and reaped the crops...
Bless the hands that fed your creatures, and yes, O God, the hands that slaughtered...
Bless the hands that processed and packaged, and the hands that loaded and drove the trucks... Bless the hands that stocked the shelves, the hands that worked the cash register, the hands that bagged the purchases...
Bless the hands that cooked the food, and bless the hands that serve it...
Bless the hands now lifted in thanks to you.
May we join our hands in unity around your great banqueting table, sharing in love for you and for one another. AMEN
Monday, November 3, 2008
Brahm's Grace #3
God who gathers us,
we give thanks for this chance to come together,
to share in Your good creation
and to share in conversation.
You call us into community,
to be good neighbors,
and we remember those who are not with us.
Bless all of your creation,
that all the world might be blessed, clothed, and fed.
In Your name we pray,
Amen.
As we are gathered together into community, we remember who is not gathered with us.
We petition God for ourselves and for those not with us.
And we pray that God blesses all of the world; all of God's creation.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Jon's Blessing #3
Abundant God,
We thank you for this food before us,
That satisfies our immediate hunger.
And we thank you for your food from above,
That provides lasting satisfaction.
Help us enjoy this food
And enjoy the pleasure it gives to our bodies.
Remind us of what real hunger is like,
So that we might hunger and thirst after a world
Where hunger-pains are no more,
And all your children can have their desire for well-being satisfied.
Amen
This prayer is an attempt to incorporate some of the themes from “Food for Life.” The theme of satisfaction was mentioned in a quote from one of my favorite author’s, Wendell Berry, who speaks of consumerism always promising satisfaction but never delivering. I wanted to contrast food’s impermanent satisfaction of our hungers with God’s Bread of Life. Jung speaks a lot about God’s intent for food being enjoyment, so I wanted to incorporate this as well. But this enjoyment can only be fully understood in light of the physical knowledge of hunger. I think most of us in the West have lost sight of what it means to be really hungry, and a deeper experience of this might help our efforts in combating hunger.
The Lord Is Present
The Lord Is Present
Leader: The Lord is present when two or more are gathered in His name.
All: Amen Come Lord Jesus.
Leader: The Lord is present as we gather at the table and we praise His holy Name.
All: Amen Come Lord Jesus.
Leader: The Lord is present and we share this food prepared for us
All: Amen Come Lord Jesus
Leader: The Lord is present and we share each other's stories
All: Amen come Lord Jesus
Leader: The Lord is present and we give thanks for all that the Lord provides.
All: Amen.
This was inspired by the small table graces located on pages 36 and 37 of Jung's Sharing Food.
Peace,
Juanita Krmaschek
Thank You God: Emily Carson's Blessing #3
Thank you God for the ways you provide.
Thank you God that you bring all things new life.
For the food we eat,
For family far and near,
For friends we love,
For hands preparing this meal we share.
Thank you God for the ways you provide.
Thank you God that you bring all things new life.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Table Grace #3 (Lynne)
Blessed art thou, O eternal, Our God, King of the Universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine; Creator of the radiance of the fire; Our God, who brings forth bread from the earth; who feeds the whole world with goodness and with grace, kindness and mercy, gives food to every creature, for your mercy endures forever.
As we gather here in this place, we share our meal, our time, our laughter, our thoughts, our sorrow and our love for you, O God. May the wine last through the night as we drink of your grace; May all be part of the conversation as we rest in your company; May all find succulence in the taste of the food as we find your love to fill us; May all find pleasure in the music of your mercy as we share in this community of you; May this meal be filling yet keep us hungry for justice in this world and hope for the future banquet at the table in your world.
Amen
I love Jewish holy day feasts and festivals! And after the readings for this week (especially Dinner with Jesus & Paul, Peter in the Middle, Typology of Roman Public Feasting), I found myself uttering some of the phrases from the Passover Haggadah. The first part of the blessing is in fact, some of the prayers from Passover.
Other considerations were the appreciation for the wine lasting through the meal, keeping the meal size small to encourage participation and unity from all, the focus on rest & comfort amidst friends, the appreciation for the flute playing and the implication of looking towards the banquet of the afterlife.