Rev. Jane-Elizabeth Brakhage Presents
'Spiritual Discipline'
Rev. Jane-Elizabeth Brakhage, Missouri West Conference UMC
(a good friend of Rev. Michael Lee Burgess, shared with permission).
Reviving Meal Time Prayer
One of my favorite books is A Pilgrim's Almanac:
Reflections for Each Day of the Year by Edward Hays.
Edward Hays is a monk in a monastery somewhere in Kansas.
This little book has some thought provoking readings for each day of the year.
Some of the holidays he lists are made up ones that occur some time in the future
while others are feast days that we have forgotten.
Recently, he had a short essay about the "Knife and Fork Prayer."
In this essay, Hays quotes some statistics about prayer in America.
"Recent surveys of George Gallup show that only 28% of Americans pray daily.
In 1952, by contrast, 42% of Americans said that they prayed at least twice a day or more."
How often does your family pray?
Have you lost the tradition of saying a prayer before meals?
Hays says that "one prayer that formerly was part of every 'good' Christian home was
grace before meals. . . .Very religious families also said grace after meals."
If this is one tradition that has gone by the wayside in your home, try and revive it this month.
Saying grace is not that difficult. Even some of our youngest children know "God is great.
God is good. Let us thank him for our food."
Improvising grace to fit the situation is a good way to learn how to pray out loud in
front of people without being embarrassed.
One reason to pray before and after a meal is so that "every meal can be a sacrament,
a grace-filled reminder of the Great Meal of the Eucharist."
God is the one that provides for our needs and we acknowledge God's gifts by returning thanks.
Another way to remember to acknowledge God's gift of food is to revive an "old European
custom about positioning the knife and fork at the end of a meal."
The tradition started in Italy sometime after silverware became commonplace.
After one was through with their meal, they positioned their knife vertically across
the plate and then placed the fork horizontally on top of it.
The utensils form a cross and can "also be an expression of 'grace' after the meal."
Hays says that "to make such an after-dinner ritual part of the daily flow of life
would not be at all difficult.
It would only have to be practiced a short while before becoming a natural way to
conclude every meal.
At home or away, it could be a hidden, yet holy, silent prayer of thanksgiving."
May you have success in reviving the custom of prayer at meals in the coming month.
Until next time, may the peace and grace of Christ be with you always.
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