It makes total sense to me to say “Lord, I know intellectually that I should be grateful, but I don’t always feel that way. Help me to be truly thankful.”
But the other thing that may be going on is that sometimes, when one person is praying on behalf of a group, I suspect they’re addressing God but really talking to the other people present. “Lord, help us to remember to wipe our feet when we come in out of the rain, so that we don’t muddy up the carpet.”
Yep, it shows up in a lot of military fiction - historical, sci-fi, fantasy, etc. Basically “Please let me be around afterwards so I’m capable of being thankful.”
It’s in many (all?) of the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey/Maturin novels, said as the sailors await the beginning of a battle.
As a small child, I’d say “Let us thank *us *for our food”. It was clear to *me *where it came from.
That said, “Bless the meat, damn the skin, open wide and cram it in.”
I’m not a Christian, but I think the thing that you’re not recognizing is that gratitude is often very difficult. You’re thinking that someone with food in front of them is going to automatically be thankful for it, but that’s rarely the case. The word “truly” in the grace is especially important. It’s about taking time to recognize and feel gratitude for the things we have in our lives, even if they are small, imperfect things like lunch.
Gratitude is an important part of many philosophies and psychological practices, but it takes effort. A reminder to be truly thankful and a prayer to God to make it so is a valuable tool when you’re trying to have an attitude of gratitude.
Actually, in my family it was usually “Father, we thank the for the blessings of this day and for this food, and bless it to its intended us and us to Thy service. Amen.”
I’m not Anglican. However, my interpretation is that there’s likely a difference between being “thankful” and being “truly thankful.” It would be similar to how there is love, and then truly loving as defined in 1 Corinthians 13.
In other words, we can’t on our own be “truly thankful.” Because we are imperfect beings, there will always be some resentment, some taking for granted, etc. Only with can make us truly thankful.
Also, I note that the prayer is not said in direct address to “the Lord.” So I’m not sure if it actually is being said to Him. Maybe it is, but is just indirect by custom. But it could also be more an invocation. In that case, it would be more like saying “I hope that the Lord will make me truly thankful.”
But I don’t know. Like I said, I’m not Anglican. But that’s just my immediate read.
Prayer is seeking God’s perfect will … in the old days in the Holy Land of Israel wayward inn’s would poison people with the food and then bury them in the back yard and wait for the next inn’s visitors.
So therefore praying and giving thanks for the food not to kill them also became necessary.
I like to think of all of the people that are worse off than me when I give grace for my food … it feels better.
Do you have a cite for that?
“God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for this food.”
It’s sort of like when Jesus was asked how many times we had to forgive someone, as many as seven times? And Jesus said that we must forgive others seven times seventy times. He didn’t literally mean to say “I forgive you” 490 times. He meant that no matter how hard we as mere mortals try to forgive, we always need to try harder, because true forgiveness is beyond what our human limitations are capable of. So too is true thankfulness.
An essay on thankfulness that I’m fond of, from the writer of a webcomic I follow: Basically, to be truly thankful for something means to be thankful for all of the things that preceded that thing to make it possible. And that’s an endless quest, even to be thankful for one thing, and we’re finite beings. So we can’t be truly, completely thankful for anything, and so we ask God to help us.
“Father, Son and the Holy Ghost, The one who eats fastest gets the most”.
The priest at my childhood parish made the same point, only for comic effect he introduced an “Italian engineer” who interpreted the point of the parable as very literally meaning we must forgive 490 times. My family was not amused.
The gist of the prayer is something like “Our natural state of happiness is to be grateful every moment for your gifts, for all things come from You. But most of the time, we forget to be. Please, God, help us to remember.”
it is useful to bear in mind that most traditional prayers are old, old enough for the language to have slightly changed in meaning and tone.
Here is a translation of a Soto Zen Buddhist monastic prayer before meals. Buddhists don’t believe in a God, the way theists do. Yet there are a lot of similarities.
First, let us reflect on our own work and the effort of those who brought us
this food.
Second, let us be aware of the quality of our deeds as we receive this meal.
Third, what is most essential is the practice of mindfulness, which helps us to transcend greed, anger and delusion.
Fourth, we appreciate this food which sustains the good health of our body and
mind.
Fifth, in order to continue our practice for all beings we accept this offering.
There were plenty of meals I had growing up which would have taken divine intervention for me to be grateful for.
Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be Thankit!
My wife had warned me not to tell other people’s children, or her strictly religious grandparents, to say the short grace:
“Jesus Christ this is good food!”
Yes, that is what it sounds like. Or like this
or this:
I’m not an expert, but I think that this is a particularly Christian theology, not something you would necessarily see in other faiths.
Bart Simpson: Dear God, we paid for all this, so thanks for nothing.
Another one I like is “God bless you.” Since when do humans give a divinity orders? Oh, yes. The original was, “May God bless you,” but they don’t *say *that anymore, *do *they.