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Prayers

The ancient grace after meals

A grace monks sang after supper in the 300s. St John Chrysostom urged every family to say it, and Orthodox monasteries still say it on Sundays and feasts.

Picture: Fritz von Uhde, Come, Lord Jesus, Be Our Guest (Grace before the Meal), 1885

The words of the prayer

Plain English

Blessed is God,Who has mercy on us and feeds us from our youth,Who gives food to every living creature.Fill our hearts with joy and gladness,so that, always having all that we need,we may abound in every good work,in Christ Jesus our Lord.Glory, might, honour and worship are due to You,with Him and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.

Glory to You, O Lord!Glory to You, O Holy One!Glory to You, O King!For You have given us food to gladden us.Fill us also with the Holy Spirit,so that we may be found pleasing to Youand not be put to shamewhen You repay each one according to their deeds.

Traditional wording, 1888

Blessed God, Who feedest me from my youth up, Who givest food to all flesh;fill our hearts with joy and gladness,that always having all sufficiency we may abound unto every good work in Christ Jesus our Lord;with Whom be unto Thee glory, honor and might, with the Holy Spirit, forever. Amen.

Glory to Thee, O Lord, glory to Thee, O Holy One, glory to Thee, O King,that Thou hast given us meat to make us glad.Fill us with the Holy Ghost, that we may be found well-pleasing before Thee,not being ashamed, when Thou renderest to every man according to his works.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic of the book of hours, with the 1888 translation of St John Chrysostom’s sermon beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: George Prevost and M. B. Riddle, St John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), 1888.

This is the grace as Chrysostom quoted it in the 4th century: “Blessed God, Who feedest me”. The book of hours today says “Blessed is God, Who has mercy on us and feeds us”.

When it is said

In Orthodox monasteries the monks stand up after the meal and say it. Then a bread offered in honour of the Mother of God is lifted up.

The book of hours sets the rite for every day. In practice monasteries keep it for Sundays and feasts. On other days they end the meal with “We thank You, O Christ our God”.

Anyone may say it at home after a meal, as St John Chrysostom urged.

Where it comes from

No author known

The monks’ hymn, praised by Chrysostom

St John Chrysostom, preaching in Antioch in the late 300s, praised the desert monks for the hymn of thanks they sang after supper. He recited it in full. Then he urged his hearers to take it home: “let every one after his meal say these words”.

St John Chrysostom, Homily 55 on Matthew (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1888)

In a church manual of the 300s

The grace’s first prayer is also in the Apostolic Constitutions, a church manual of the 4th century, as “A Prayer at Dinner”. A treatise on virginity from the same century, once credited to St Athanasius, has it too.

Apostolic Constitutions, book 7 (Ante-Nicene Fathers); Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), Apostolic Constitutions; Fr Mikhail Zheltov, “Panagia”, Orthodox Encyclopedia (in Russian)

A Jewish parallel

Fr Mikhail Zheltov, a Russian Orthodox scholar of worship, thinks the grace’s two prayers probably go back to early Christian tradition. He notes a direct parallel between the first prayer and the first of the Birkat Hamazon, the blessings Jews say after a meal.

Fr Mikhail Zheltov, “Panagia”, Orthodox Encyclopedia (in Russian)

What the words mean

Thanks for a lifetime, and for the world

Chrysostom drew lessons from the words. “From our youth” gives thanks for a whole life, not for one day only. “Food to all flesh” gives thanks “in behalf of all the world”. And no one, he said, can hate the people he thanks God for feeding.

St John Chrysostom, Homily 55 on Matthew

Why end a meal with the Judgment?

The second prayer ends on the day God repays each one for their deeds. Chrysostom explained why the monks put it there. A full meal can weigh the soul down, so this line is “a kind of bridle upon the soul”. They ask to be found pleasing to God, and not put to shame.

St John Chrysostom, Homily 55 on Matthew

The Scripture in it

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

2 Corinthians 9:8 Quoted “Always having all that we need, we may abound in every good work”: the grace borrows Paul’s words almost exactly.

He gives food to every creature. His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalm 136:25 Echoed “He gives food to every creature”: the psalm’s thanks, in the grace’s first lines.

Then he blessed Joseph and said: “May the God before Whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God Who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,”

Genesis 48:15 Echoed Jacob blesses the God Who has been his shepherd all his life. The Greek Bible says “Who continues to feed me from my youth”.

God “will repay each one according to his deeds.”

Romans 2:6 Echoed “When You repay each one according to their deeds”: Paul on the Judgment.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Church Slavonic

Благословен Бог, милуяй и питаяй нас от юности нашея, даяй пищу всякой плоти:

исполни радости и веселия сердца наша, да всегда всякое довольство имуще, преизобилуем во всякое дело благое, во Христе Иисусе Господе нашем:

с Нимже Тебе слава подобает, держава, честь и поклонение со Святым Духом, во веки, аминь.

Слава Тебе Господи, слава Тебе Святый, слава Тебе Царю, яко дал еси нам брашна в веселие:

исполни нас и Духа Святаго, да обрящемся пред Тобою благоугодни и непостыдни, егда воздаси комуждо по делом его.

From the Church Slavonic book of hours (the Horologion), on Azbyka.ru, a Russian Orthodox website: said standing after the monastery meal.

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