Prayers for Mealtime
Een christelijcke benedictie voor, een gracias na den eaten
For other foundation can no man lay
than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
I Corinthians 3.11
Courtesy Herald
Press, Scottdale, PA (1984), Menno Simons, Author (c. 1557), Leonard Verduin,
translator (1955), H. C. Wenger, editor (1955), The Complete Writings of Menno Simons,
c. 1496-1561, p 955-958, Herald Press.
This Is a Christian Grace Before Meals, Together with a Prayer of
Thanksgiving After Meals – Intended for all Genuinely God-fearing Folk, and
Moreover Intended to Be Taught to Their Children from Childhood on, in Order
That They May Learn to Fear the Lord, May Learn to Know Him, and to Walk in His
Commandments All Their Days, to the Praise and Glory of the Lord and to the
Salvation of Their Souls. Amen.
Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
I.
A CHRISTIAN GRACE BEFORE MEALS
O give thanks unto the Lord, said
David, for He is good. For His goodness
and mercy endureth forever. O taste and
see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. O fear the Lord, ye His saints, for there is
no want to them that fear Him. The rich
He sends away empty, but they that fear the Lord shall have lack of
nothing. He giveth food to those that
fear Him. He remembers His covenant
forever.
Thou shalt eat the labor of they
hands; happy shalt thou be and it shall be well with thee. They wife shall be as a fruitful vine in the
innermost part of thy house; thy children like olive plants round about thy
table. Behold, thus shall the man be
blest that feareth the Lord.
I have been young and now I am old,
says David, and have never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging
bread, even as Thou hast, O Lord, demonstrated to the children of Israel. Thou hast given them bread from heaven and
water out of the flinty rock in the wilderness forty years long. O Lord, Thou hast fed Elijah with flesh and
with bread byt eh ravens morning and evening – also by the widow of Zarephath
in that the meal did not diminish in the jar nor the oil in the cruse for a long
time, according to the word spoken by the Prophet Elijah, the Tishbite – and by
the angel of the Lord, with bread and with water under the juniper bush when he
fled before Jezebel. O Lord, Thou has
fed Daniel in the den of lions in Babylon by the angel of the Lord, and by the
Prophet Habakkuk with the victuals which he had prepared for his reapers. Habakkuk spoke saying, Daniel, Daniel, take
of the food which God has sent to you.
And Daniel spoke saying, And, Lord, Thou art ever mindful of me and dost
not forsake those that call upon Thee and love Thee. And he rose up and ate. O Lord, Thou has so wonderfully, and
unexpectedly, and, according to the Word of the Lord spoken by Elisha the
prophet of the Lord, fed those of Samaria when the hunger was so great that the
women (by nature quite pitiful, as Lamentations has it) did sod and eat their
own children, even as at Jerusalem.
O Lord, Thou hast with five barley
loaves and two fishes fed about five thousand men, not counting women and
children – twelve basketfuls remaining – by the power of Thy prayer of blessing
and thanksgiving. What is impossible with
men is possible with God. This , Lord,
Thou Thyself hast declared.
Therefore, Thou has in the Gospel
taught Thy children that fear Thee saying, Take no thought for thy life, what
ye shall eat and what ye shall drink, nor for the body what ye shall put
on. Is not the life more than food and
the body than raiment? Consider the
birds of the heaven. They sow not,
neither do they gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them
nevertheless. Are you not much more than
they? Which of you can add one cubit to
his stature by being careful for it? And
why do you take thought for raiment?
Consider the lilies of the field how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin – I ay
unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these. If God so clothe the grass of the
field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into oven, would He not much more do
such for you, O ye of little faith!
Therefore, do not be filled with care saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? After these things do the Gentiles seek but
your Father knows that ye have need of all these things. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore anxious for tomorrow, for
tomorrow will be anxious for itself. It
is enough that every day carries it own burdens, as Christ says.
