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Bless This Food: Ancient and Contemporary Graces from Around the World
Connecting cultures to each other, nature, and the infinite, breaking bread together is the most universal cultural experience. Commonly regarded as the first act of worship, saying grace acknowledges the bounty as a gift from the divine. Blending scholarly insight with the poet’s love of language, this new edition of Bless this Food presents additional prayers as well as expanded background information about each one. The graces have been carefully selected from all the world’s major religions (Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Shintoism, Confucisnism, Sufism, Tamilism, Unitarianism), ancient traditions (Greek, Egyptian, Native American, Indian, African), and great poets, thinkers, and activists (Shakespeare, Milton, Gandhi, Mother Teresa). The book even includes two prayers in American Sign Language and features the short prayer “Bless this Food” in 19 languages. Each prayer is introduced with cultural context and intriguing details about its history and evolution.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published September 28, 2007
48 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 15, 2008
When I think about food blessings, I tend to think of Christian graces said before meals. So when I came upon Bless This Food, I rather expected a book filled with traditional Christian graces. That would have been somewhat interesting but not really all functional for anyone who isn't Christian.
Instead, I was pleasantly surprised that Bless This Food actually only contained a handful of Christian graces. Inside this book, the prayers and blessings represented many different cultures, religions, and beliefs systems, both contemporary and from the very distant past. Moreover, not only had the author included some very intriguing pieces but each entry included a little blurb stating the history and explaining a little about the cultural reference of the work. Well done.
Instead, I was pleasantly surprised that Bless This Food actually only contained a handful of Christian graces. Inside this book, the prayers and blessings represented many different cultures, religions, and beliefs systems, both contemporary and from the very distant past. Moreover, not only had the author included some very intriguing pieces but each entry included a little blurb stating the history and explaining a little about the cultural reference of the work. Well done.
August 17, 2013
I quite enjoyed the collection of blessings offered in this book. There were quite a few I want to use in our family. I think there is something for anyone looking for ways to incorporate blessing into their meals. The selections are from every major faith tradition, quite a few of the minor ones, as well as poets and writers. Butash provided the sources for all his selections and in many cases some context for the historical or religious significance of the prayer.
In the introduction Butash attempts to give a broad overview of the significance of blessing meals, some history, and historical and religious context. Initially I was a little put off by the writing style used in the introduction but the blessing more than make up for the deficiencies. The table of contents provides a way to look for prayers by author, national origin, and religious tradition. The index provides a listing by first line.
I did notice one error in relation to Christianity that makes me suspect there are other similar errors in the book. Butash says, "While this book is a collection of blessings that civilization has preserved, there are other momentous prayers of thanks that are documented but whose actual words are not known. Two intriguing examples are two prayers of thanks, that according to the bible, Jesus offered at the Last Supper. We don't know if the prayers were voiced or silent. Jesus' exact words (if they were spoken) were not recorded by the authors of the new Testament. ... These two thanks-giving prayers of Jesus are sacred mysteries." I understand what he is trying to say, but this isn't a mystery. The Last Supper was the passover meal. The prayers said by Jesus were not recorded because there was no need to. The prayers for passover were known by every Jew and could be easily shared with converts. The Gospel writers only needed to record where Jesus deviated from the standard prayers.
Overall, I think this book is a good reference source of meal blessings
In the introduction Butash attempts to give a broad overview of the significance of blessing meals, some history, and historical and religious context. Initially I was a little put off by the writing style used in the introduction but the blessing more than make up for the deficiencies. The table of contents provides a way to look for prayers by author, national origin, and religious tradition. The index provides a listing by first line.
I did notice one error in relation to Christianity that makes me suspect there are other similar errors in the book. Butash says, "While this book is a collection of blessings that civilization has preserved, there are other momentous prayers of thanks that are documented but whose actual words are not known. Two intriguing examples are two prayers of thanks, that according to the bible, Jesus offered at the Last Supper. We don't know if the prayers were voiced or silent. Jesus' exact words (if they were spoken) were not recorded by the authors of the new Testament. ... These two thanks-giving prayers of Jesus are sacred mysteries." I understand what he is trying to say, but this isn't a mystery. The Last Supper was the passover meal. The prayers said by Jesus were not recorded because there was no need to. The prayers for passover were known by every Jew and could be easily shared with converts. The Gospel writers only needed to record where Jesus deviated from the standard prayers.
Overall, I think this book is a good reference source of meal blessings
April 21, 2008
I was looking to get from this book a really wonderful, moving, worldy, and secular blessing to use during meal time. I did not want to praise God or the Lord, but simply be able to appreciate what I have. Even with the many many blessing in this book, I was unable to find one suited for my goal. I think it would be interesting for a family to use however, as it is quite varied in the different cultures included in the text and children could especially walk away with something special.
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March 5, 2010Pleasant reminders of thanksgiving for the food that allows me to do all that I do. I like that the book includes thanksgivings from all over the world and a wide span of time periods too (I just read one from over 500 BC). It's fun to read, but I may or may not read it all.
December 2, 2013
A nice collection of general prayers. I think a bit of organization would have gone a long way to the delivery.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews