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My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I was born RC, but for the past 6 months have been attending Divine Liturgy at our Greek Catholic Church. And, thanks in part to this forum, am moving steadily Eastward.

I would like to know some different forms of (spoken) blessings before meals. I have heard a sung blessing in Ukrainian that was sublime, but for now just prayers that I can memorize.

Thank you, all...

Here's a good site with some prayers: http://www.ocf.org/orthodoxpage/prayers/meals.html

One excerpt:

Logos Teen

TIL, many thanks!

Dear Karen,

There is a beautiful rite before meals that can be performed especially during great feast days by laypeople with their families.

This is the raising of the "Panaghia" referring to the Mother of God.

She appeared to the Apostles following her Dormition and being taken up, Body and Soul, to heaven.

She told them that she will always be the Protector of them and all Christians and gave them a prayer by which they were to invoke her aid: Mother of God, come to our assistance!

There is a formal monastic rite for this, but this is what we do in our family.

The two main kitchen icons should be the icon of the Holy Trinity or the Hospitality of Abraham where the Three Angels are sitting at table under the Oaks of Mamre. The other is any icon of the Mother of God who gave us the Bread of Life.

We can take a round loaf of wheat bread with a cup of wine placed in a shrine or another little table with those two icons.

We cut a triangular piece of bread from the loaf that represents at once the Holy Trinity and the Bread of Life that took Flesh from the Virgin Mother of God.

Following the praying of the Our Father and Psalm 144, we take the piece of bread and move it in vertical motion over the icon of the Trinity saying: Great is the Name of the Holy Trinity!

Then we move the bread in horizontal motion over the icon of the Mother of God saying: Most Holy Mother of God, come to our assistance! O God, by her intercessions, have mercy and save us!

We then leave the bread on the designated table and begin dinner.

Afterwards, we say the prayer to our Lady, "Truly it is meet . . ."

Then we kiss the person who prepared the meal three times on the cheeks and say with gratitude: "May Christ bless and save you!"

Then the designated person recites Psalm 121 and distributes the bread and the wine to everyone saying to each: Blessed is God Who blesses our lives with His rich gifts!

Alex

From the old Roman Breviary graces recited in seminaries and monasteries, there is a long blessing before meals.

However, for practical use, I do a 'snippet' of Psalms from this blessing.

"The Lord is just in all His words and holy in all His works. The eyes of all look hopefully to You, O Lord, and you give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. Glory to the Father...."

Simple. And scriptural.

Blessings!

Thank you, Teen of the Incarnate Logos. Those are the prayers I have heard my priest say. I just didn't know where to find them.

Thank you, Alex for explaining your home blessing, the raising of the Panaghia. The symbolism is beautiful. It feels very reverent and something that I want to become part of my life. I appreciate your detailing, too, even the mention of which icons belong in the kitchen area!

Thank you, Dr. John.

Oops! Hit the "Post" button too soon!

Thank you, Dr. John. As you say, simple and scriptural. This gives me another RC choice. The old "Bless us O Lord and these Thy gifts..." just doesn't seem to be enough for me anymore!

Thanks, all!

Dr. John and co.,

You are all right. Many Eastern Churches (like my Armenian Church) and monastics use both the "O Christ our God, bless the food and drink of thy servants..." and the "All expect of thee that thou give them food in due season, what thou givest to them, they shall gather up, when thou openest thy hand they shall all be filled with good." At least this is how my family learnt it.

Trusting In Christ's Light,
Wm. DerGhazarian
Armenian Catholic Christian
www.geocities.com/wmwolfe_48044/ [geocities.com]

Ghazar, thank you for adding to all of these exquisite blessings. I have also bookmarked your website... so much to learn!

Thank you, all

Dear Karen,

I'm happy you found my post to your taste!

There is also the Carpathian tradition, as I learned it, of blessing food by signing it with the Cross with a spoon or fork.

One could also use one's hand.

The popular "Hot Cross Buns" were a Lenten delicacy from Queen Elizabeth I's time and were "pre-blessed" as a Lenten treat with the Cross on top.

Alex

Yes, the blessing with the hand. I make the Sign over everything, even a cup of water. A Benedictine friend once sent me the URL of a site that had photographs... some kind of molecular photography... of examples of the crystalline structures of water and some foods, if I remember correctly, in samples of three... the items' normal crystalline structure, then of after loving thoughts had been directed to them, and finally identical items that had thoughts of hostility or apathy directed toward them. What was interesting was how the original structures rearranged themselves into equally exquisitely beautiful patterns when subjected to loving thoughts, while the subjects of the hostility/apathetic thoughts either disintegrated or formed into jagged, unsymmetrical shapes.

I try to remember to bless everything with the Sign of the Cross. Even gum.

Re the above.... Dr. Emoto of Japan. The experiments were conducted on water (not foods, as my faulty memory indicated!) and one of the most striking examples was of polluted water and how its crystalline structure changed when blessed by a (Buddhist) priest. Since we and our world are largely water, the idea carries over into food. There are a number of websites carrying these photographs, many of them new-agey but others are holistic health, environmental and university sites.

Dear Karen,

Very good!

The Byzantine-Slavic tradition would have us bless ourselves before drinking water because it is the effective sign of Baptism - there are superstitions associated with demons getting in through our mouths as well. This is why we are to drink an alcoholic drink in one single gulp . . .

Bread that has fallen down ought to be picked up and kissed in token of reverence for the medium by which Christ comes to us in Holy Communion too.

Alex