Bless This Food

Grace before meals is the prayer said most often in homes around the world, an act of worship common to every known society. The universal experience of sharing food fundamentally connects people to one another, to nature, and to the infinite. Expressing thanks for food represents a wonderful tradition that acknowledges bounty and our daily sustenance as gifts from the divine. Bless This Food presents 160 timeless mealtime blessings in an easy-to-use format. The eloquent prayers and poems have been carefully selected from the world’s major religions, ancient traditions, and the work of great poets and thinkers, with sources ranging from Shakespeare to Starhawk, Tecumseh to the Tamil tradition, the North American plains to Pakistan. Each grace is introduced with cultural context and details about its history and evolution. Also included are two prayers in American Sign Language and the short prayer “bless this food” in nineteen languages. The result is a unique kind of soul food — and a recipe for gratitude at any mealtime gathering.

Winner of a third-place award for prayer books from the Association of Catholic Publishers. Bless Us, O Lord belongs on the shelf of every Catholic family that wants to pray together daily. You can introduce children to original and traditional blessings, the lives of the saints, the rhythm of the Church year, and the practice of daily prayer in a way that is both appealing to them and a means to unite your whole family. Praying together at the table helps families recognize the presence of Jesus in their midst and make connections between their meal and the celebration of the Eucharist. Author Robert M. Hamma brings his warm and gentle spirit to original prayers, which he combines with traditional blessings to offer an open-and-go resource for parents and caregivers. He provides the perfect words for every occasion—from observing saint feast days and liturgical seasons to celebrating a child's birthday and remembering the life of a loved one. Bless Us, O Lord will help you with fresh ideas and tools for living the liturgy in your home and nourishing the souls of your children with stories of the saints, including prayers for days of the week; Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, and Easter; saints’ feast days and holy days; national and cultural holidays; and special family celebrations to mark birthdays, anniversaries, and special achievements.

What is spirituality? For some, it means nothing more than vague self-improvement pulled from the latest best-selling self-help book. For others, it refers to some generic religious practice. Shedding life-giving light on what often remains ill-defined and unclear, this book sets forth a vision of biblical spirituality—“a renewed sense of the momentousness of being alive in God’s world as God’s people are led by God’s Spirit through God’s Word unto godly, Christlike character.” With careful exegetical work and theological reflection, the contributors—pastors and scholars such as Christopher W. Morgan, Paul R. House, Nathan A. Finn, and Gregg R. Allison—address spirituality from the perspective of the Bible, exploring topics such as the Trinity, divine sovereignty and human responsibility, the “already” and “not yet,” and the church. This book also addresses practical questions about spirituality related to the workplace, disciplines of the body, and more.

A series of prayers for all occasions help children celebrate and give thanks for the world around them.

For centuries, readers have turned to the Bhagavad Gita for inspiration and guidance as they chart their own spiritual paths. As profound and powerful as this classic text has been for generations of seekers, integrating its lessons into the ordinary patterns of our lives can ultimately seem beyond our reach. Now, in a fascinating series of reflections, anecdotes, stories, and exercises, Ram Dass gives us a unique and accessible road map for experiencing divinity in everyday life. In the engaging, conversational style that has made his teachings so popular for decades, Ram Dass traces our journey of consciousness as it is reflected in one of Hinduism’s most sacred texts. The Gita teaches a system of yogas, or “paths for coming to union with God.” In Paths to God, Ram Dass brings the heart of that system to light for a Western audience and translates the Gita’s principles into the manual for living the yoga of contemporary life. While being a guide to the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, Paths to God is also a template for expanding our definition of ourselves and allowing us to appreciate a new level of meaning in our lives.

The author of Diet for a New America shows how we can significantly improve ourselves and the world by changing the way we eat. May All Be Fed explains why so few have so much to eat and why so many have so little, and it shows how everyone can make a difference by altering food choices. 8 charts.

This book of graces and reflections integrates thankfulness with a burning passion for justice, both of which are central to our relationship with a bountiful provider God, with the whole creation, with each other and with our brothers and sisters throughout the world who, because of greed and injustice, will not receive their daily bread. This work invites us to pray and recommit ourselves to act for justice each time we join in the simple sharing of a meal. It is also very much a celebration - of food, of diversity, of community and sharing, of creator and creation. The graces in this book are from a wide range of contributors - from Iona Community members, associates and friends, from other religious communities and houses of welcome, from humanitarian organisations, from different faiths and traditions.

Grocery stores and drive-thru menus are full of quick and convenient options to relieve your hunger. But are your food choices saving you minutes each day while shaving years off of your life? Why can't you eat what you want and just pray that God will fix it? In this book, Dr. Amanda Roberson pulls back the curtain to expose why our food choices are leading to chronic diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and cancer and what to do about it. Recognizing that God is the Great Physician, Dr. Roberson will show you how to take responsibility as a good steward over your body by teaching you: why many of your favorite foods are killing you slowly what you can do to reverse the affects of chronic illnesses and medical conditions spiritual aspects of illness and disease and the power of your words over your health. With so much conflicting information about health - often driven by people who want to increase profits - Dr. Roberson gives you the truth about how to create healthy habits that allow you to enjoy the abundant life God wants you to have."