Category: Spirituality

Dear heavenly Father, thank you for this food.
Bless it and nourish it to our bodies.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Catholic
Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Eastern Orthodox
O Christ God, bless the food and drink of Thy servants, for holy art Thou, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Anglican
Bless, O Father, Thy gifts to our use and us to Thy service; for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Lutheran
Come, Lord Jesus, be our Guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen.

Our Loving Source, who is transcendent,
Holy is your name.

Your rulership come;
Your will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us each day the food we need.

And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And let us not be led into temptation;
but deliver us from the evil.

For yours is the rulership,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.

Amen.

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An inclusive dynamic equivalent translation from the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament by Jay N. Forrest

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

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This is from the Book of Common Prayer according to the Episcopal Church.

Most merciful God, 

we confess that we have sinned against you 
in thought, word, and deed, 
by what we have done, 
and by what we have left undone. 
We have not loved you with our whole heart; 
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. 
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. 
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, 
have mercy on us and forgive us; 
that we may delight in your will, 
and walk in your ways, 
to the glory of your Name. Amen.

[A deacon or lay person says:]

Almighty God have mercy on us, 
forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
strengthen us in all goodness, 
and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. 
Amen.

_________
This is from the Book of Common Prayer according to the Episcopal Church.

And Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

You have said “yes.” You have accepted the job offer. Now is not the time to doubt. Now is not the time to be looking back.

No job is perfect, and no job is really secure. Security is found only in God. Stop looking for it in the outside world.

Doubts after decisions are devils trying to sabotage your new job, your new adventure. Put both hands to the plow and don’t look back. It is too late to question, too late to second guess. Plow forward. Move ahead.

It is good, sometimes, to close the book on a past chapter of your life. Indeed, we should be “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:13).