Dear friends,
Many listeners in the Christian tradition will remember the Grace Before Meals,
Which was taught to all of us in our childhood.
It went something like this.
Bless us,
O Lord,
And these thy gifts,
Which of thy bounty we are about to receive.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Thinking back on it,
I wonder if any of us understood fully the meaning of the word bounty as we recited these words exactly as we were taught them.
Most of us listening to this talk live in a world of abundance and superabundance,
And there is a danger that we would take the gift of our food for granted.
At least I know I do.
Yes,
I am conscious in a general way of how fortunate I am to have the food sitting before me,
And I do in a brief way give thanks for that good fortune reasonably often.
But it occurred to me that it might be good if you and I were to express our gratitude for our food in a more mindful way,
By stopping briefly before each meal,
And by giving thanks even silently.
In our busyness,
We can drift into the habit of eating on the hoof,
And munching away as we check our phones or watch our television screens.
Some years ago,
I spent a short period in Plum Village,
Which is near Bordeaux in France.
Plum Village is a community established by the much-loved Vietnamese monk,
The peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh.
In Plum Village,
I was introduced to a grace before meals,
Which was very meaningful,
And which I'd like to share with you in this talk.
This is how it goes.
This food is the gift of the entire universe,
The earth,
The sun,
The sky,
The stars,
And the hard and loving work of numerous beings.
May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude,
So as to be worthy to receive this food.
These simple words remind us of much that has gone into the making of the food that sits before us.
We think of this good earth,
Which has given life to all of us,
And which sustains us.
The life-giving soil,
The sunshine,
The falling rain.
We think of the people who have planned,
And planted,
And who harvested our food.
We mustn't forget the extraordinary,
Interconnected network of workers,
Cooperating together.
Thanks to the cooperative work of all of these people,
What has grown in the good earth appears on our supermarket shelves.
All this with such apparent ease,
That we can lose sight of the daily miracle which it is.
We think also of the many people in our world who do not have enough food to eat,
Nor the means to provide food for themselves.
In thankfulness for our super-abundance,
We resolve to do what we can to ease that suffering,
So that the fruits of the earth can be more fully shared.
For what we have received,
And for what we are receiving day by day,
May we be truly thankful.
Namaste.
