一個美國神父談餐前祈禱和感恩節

“Someone at our holiday tables always ends up saying grace… For a minute, our stations are tuned to a broader, richer radius. We’re acknowledging that this food didn’t just magically appear:  Someone grew it, ground it, bought it, baked it; wow.”

This piece by Anne Lamott was in the Sunday paper, and has been circulating on the Internet since. I suspect it might be an excerpt from her new book “Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers,” although it is not identified as such. Lamott begins the essay this way: “We didn’t say grace at our house when I was growing up because my parents were atheists.”  She goes on to tell about the many variations on saying grace before meals that she encountered as a child visiting the homes of friends whose parents were not atheists. She describes how she and her siblings are all people of faith as adults who do say grace before meals. It is a delightful essay, which could lead you to some fond memories if you said grace in your home as a child. It did for me.

I remember how at home we could “say grace” almost in one breath interrupted in the middle with a whispered aside “quit poking me!” I remember the grace before meals my nephews sang when they were young and how the refrain “many, many blessings” became part of my own vocabulary of blessing. I remember listening to Jewish fellow seminarians as they recited the amazingly long (to me) Hebrew prayer after meals, including some joyful embellishments they learned at summer camp. 

The practice of “saying grace” is a more complex topic and practice now with my adult friends.  Was it meaningful when we repeated those words as children, or just an indication to start the meal?  Is it meaningful now?  I have known friends who no longer say a formal prayer before meals out of concern that this, or any prayer for that matter, could become an empty routine. Others have found a way to renew this prayer with rich meaning.  Some whisper or think their prayer of thanksgiving silently to themselves to avoid causing discomfort to others at the table who might not pray at all or who might not pray in the same way. Thanksgiving is an opportunity to throw off those questions for a moment and to sweep together all prayers of all peoples in one grateful symphony.

I offer special thanks to the members of our community who will be here on Thanksgiving, caring for patients and their loved ones who cannot be home either. May you especially, and them, and all the rest of us, experience many many blessings and much grace.

(E-mail ZT)