"Be with me, O God/dess, at the breaking of bread,
Be with me, O God/dess, at the end of my meal,
May no morsel of body's partaking
Add to my soul's freight!"
____ Scots Gaelic grace, (trans. CM)
The blessing of food or the saying of 'grace' before eating is regarded as old-fashioned behavior to most households these days, except perhaps on Thanksgiving, when it plays a traditional role.
The blessing upon our food is itself a thanksgiving to all who have participated in the preparation of our meal: the grains, the earth, the elements, the animals, the ones who have processed our food and sold it to us - everyone is involved.
If we contemplate only one item of food on our table and trace back through the steps that brought it there, the scale of our thanksgiving becomes very real - a network of cooperation that is one strand of our life.
The Gaelic blessing above seems very relevant today. With the addition of chemicals and pesticides and the genetic manipulation of the cellular structure of our food, many people are very worried about production methods where only the usual agents - air, sunlight, water, and root mixture - are allowed to influence the food we eat is now widely recognized,
Very few people wish to harm their bodies or souls by participating in immoral and disrespectful food-production methods. The same goes for foodstuffs whose gathering and production endanger other species of animals or plants or further exploit already exploited people. Our choice of food is determined by the staple items of our region and our culture, many of which are in short supply. Can we change our eating habits in order to be able to breathe a true blessing upon our table?
"Write your own grace or meditate upon silently before you eat."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]
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