Like everyone else, Carol Green sometimes eats on the run. But even as she pulls past the drive-up window she remembers to pause. "Father," she says out loud, "thank you for this food and bless it."
The habit of giving thanks for food we are about to eat is common across most religions, although most people aren't as faithful to the practice as Green, a member of the Salt Lake City Foursquare Church. For many of us, saying a prayer before we eat is reserved for dinner time or family gatherings. For some of us the impulse to say grace only surfaces at Thanksgiving.
Since our other impulse as hungry humans is to to dig in as soon as we sit down in front of a plate of something yummy, saying a prayer forces us to pause, to think of something beyond our appetite, to be grateful.
Americans in general are kind of hit and miss about saying grace. A 1999 Gallup poll found that about a third said they say grace occasionally (they didn't say how occasionally), 22 percent say grace frequently, and 29 percent said they always pray before meals. Fewer whites than Hispanics or African Americans say grace, according to the poll, and Protestants are more likely to say grace than Catholics. Only 14 percent of Americans said they never say grace before a meal.
The prayers are sometimes spontaneous, sometimes rote, sometimes a mixture of both. Sikhs always recite the names of the 10 prophets, then the name of the final prophet — Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji — then ask for a blessing for the food and for strength. Muslims typically bless the food "in the name of Allah who is kind and merciful." Tibetan Buddhists make a symbolic offering to the "Buddha, dharma, sanga."
Across all religions, although the details are different, always there is a sense of gratitude.
"The whole Christian life is a life of thanksgiving," says Father Basil of Sts. Peter and Paul Orthodox Christian Church in Salt Lake City. "We're thankful for waking up, for making it out to the car, for making a journey, even if it's just to work." Food is just one more thing to be thankful for, but like attending church on Sunday, it's a time set apart, a time not just to make the sign of the cross but to give a voice to gratitude.
Orthodox Christians always say the Lord's prayer before all meals, says Father Basil. In countries other than America, a prayer is usually said following the meal as well: "We thank thee, Oh Christ our God, that Thou has filled us with thine earthly goods. Deprive us not also of thine heavenly kingdom, but as Thou camest in the midst of Thy disciples, oh Savior, and gave them peace, come also amongst us and save us."
For Sister Bridget Clare McKeever, director of the Salt Lake Catholic Diocese Office of Spirituality, grace is also just one of many daily prayers. Growing up in Ireland, she remembers, there would be prayers said when you raked ashes over the coals in the hearth, and prayers said if you passed a person who was working. There was a sense, she says, of God's presence through the whole day.
Her family said grace before and after meals, remembers Sister Bridget Clare. In those days the prayers tended to be more set. "Bless us, oh Lord, and these your gifts which we are about to receive through your bounty through Christ our Lord," the family would say before a meal. And afterward: "We give you thanks, almighty God, for these and all the blessings we have received through Christ our Lord."
In the past 40 years, she says, grace for Catholics has evolved into a more spontaneous affair, or a mixture of spontaneous and traditional. The spontaneous grace will generally include a prayer for those who don't have enough to eat. "Sometimes we join hands around the table when we say grace."
Jews, says Rabbi Joshua Aaronson of Temple Har Shalom in Park City, often say a blessing before meals, usually "Blessed are You, oh Lord our God, ruler of the universe, who has brought forth bread from the earth."
"I've been in the rabbi business a long time and the Jewish business even longer, and that's the one usually said," says Rabbi Aaronson. Technically, he says, the blessing would be said before any meal, although if it's a meal without bread it would "technically be a different prayer."
Saying a blessing before a meal is a way to "acknowledge that the things we eat have a source outside ourselves. Bread doesn't come from the earth. It's a partnership between humans and God. So the use of the word 'bread' is actually quite significant."
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are expected to say a blessing before every meal. There is no formula for this prayer, says Brian Birch, director of the religious studies program at Utah Valley State College and a practicing LDS member, but he says Latter-day Saints follow a loosly organized pattern in their prayers. This includes "an acknowledgment of heavenly father," an expression of thanks for the food, a request to bless the food — the phrase "to nourish and strengthen" usually comes in here — and a closing in the name of Jesus Christ.
"Most Mormons don't talk as if the food undergoes some kind of molecular transformation" by being blessed, notes Birch. Although, "you will occasionally hear stories that as a result of blessing the food people didn't get sick."
For Unitarians, grace is "always a challenge," admits Rev. Tom Goldsmith of First Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City. "There's no formal policy and no generic grace," he says. Still, he guesses that most members of his congregation who have children "make a concerted effort, rather than just jump into the meal, to take a moment to pause."
"It's not a grace that's addressed to someone in the heavens but a moment to be mindful of the good fortunes that bless us as we break bread together, to be mindful of the love around the table, and just gratitude that we are indeed fortunate to fill our bellies, unlike millions around the world."
Does he mention God? "To be honest, no," says the Rev. Goldsmith.
E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com