For the meal blessing, I am going to compose a short prayer that will be said just before eating.
When I was attending the University of Toronto, I took a course titled “Ritual and Worship” which was part of the Christianity and Culture programme. That course taught me a lot about effective ritual and the importance of tradition. This course was taught by a Catholic priest, and he had a lot of love for his faith. One of the most vivid things I remember is him talking about the blessing of the Eucharist – “fruit of the vine, work of human hands” – and he expressed his love for this prayer because it contained with in it the work of God and people.
At the Fire in the Hearth conference, Linda Demissy spoke briefly about the prayer she had written, and she made a similar statement about her prayer encompassing all beings that had a part in the creation of her food. This is an idea that I want to maintain in my meal blessing prayer, because I feel it is important to acknowledge our relationship to food and the processes that bring it to our table.
We extend our gratitude to the Earth Mother,
And to all the beings, however small or large,
Whose sacrifice and work helped create this meal.
Let it nourish and sustain us:
May the bounty of the Earth bless us now,
And continue to bless us in the coming seasons.
