Blessing a meal / prayer before a meal

[Fidelis]

This might not be the best quetion to put here, but it is kind of related... If not, I'll gladly delete it. My friends and I often eat together and we do pray before meals. But there is this one friend and he is really dear to me, a really sincere guy, but he literally takes at least 5, usually more like 10+ minutes (not proud of it, but I timed it once) to pray before meals and by the time he is done, the food is cold and the rest of us are a bit lost. I feel bad saying anything but still, I don't think that is always the time and place for lenghty conversations with the Lord... Would it be wrong to address that?

 

[Phil D.]

This might not be the best quetion to put here, but it is kind of related... If not, I'll gladly delete it. My friends and I often eat together and we do pray before meals. But there is this one friend and he is really dear to me, a really sincere guy, but he literally takes at least 5, usually more like 10+ minutes (not proud of it, but I timed it once) to pray before meals and by the time he is done, the food is cold and the rest of us are a bit lost. I feel bad saying anything but still, I don't think that is always the time and place for lenghty conversations with the Lord... Would it be wrong to address that?

Can't really put a hard and fast rule to that, but personally I agree with you... It is notable that the historical, set mealtime prayers that have been mentioned here are very brief...

 

[alexanderjames]

he literally takes at least 5, usually more like 10+ minutes to pray before meals

That is.. quite bizarre, and rather impressive..

I feel bad saying anything but still, I don't think that is always the time and place for lengthy conversations with the Lord... Would it be wrong to address that?

In the interest of you and your friends I think it's only reasonable to ask him privately to make a short prayer in group settings so the food doesn't go cold.

 

[ZackF]

This might not be the best quetion to put here, but it is kind of related... If not, I'll gladly delete it. My friends and I often eat together and we do pray before meals. But there is this one friend and he is really dear to me, a really sincere guy, but he literally takes at least 5, usually more like 10+ minutes (not proud of it, but I timed it once) to pray before meals and by the time he is done, the food is cold and the rest of us are a bit lost. I feel bad saying anything but still, I don't think that is always the time and place for lenghty conversations with the Lord... Would it be wrong to address that?

I have heard accounts of Shaeffer doing that at L’Abri back in the day much to the annoyance of many. People were hungry and the food would get cold.

 

[hammondjones]

On the other hand I had a pastor once who, instead of praying before the meal, just went around to everyone at the table and asked them if they were thankful.

 

[Northern Crofter]

On the other hand I had a pastor once who, instead of praying before the meal, just went around to everyone at the table and asked them if they were thankful.

The only meals we regularly eat together daily is dinner/supper. We pray (out loud) and give thanks for the meal, eat, then have family worship. Family worship ends with everyone present (including guests) sharing at least one thing they are thankful for, and then ending with prayer (where I try to remember what everyone was thankful for!).

On the Lord's Day we also eat breakfast together - we pray (out loud) not only to give thanks for the food but also for the day of rest and remembrance, and we ask for grace to do so.

If we are at a restaurant for a meal, we pray (out loud) at the beginning (a print of this Norman Rockwell painting hung in our kitchen growing up and probably influenced me more than any Puritan tome!):

At my maternal grandparents' home it was always silent prayer before breakfast and lunch but at dinner/supper my grandfather would pray out loud. They were Mennonite until my mother was in grade school and I think the silent praying is a part of Plain Folk piety - lofty prayer is frowned upon so they do a lot of silent prayer to avoid that (which makes the few times they do pray out loud seem... more lofty).

 

[PaulCLawton]

I remember a Presbyterian minister and podcast host relaying a story that he and another minister were having lunch with Rev. Joel Beeke at (if memory serves) a Pizza Hut in Grand Rapids. He explained that he was shocked and somewhat embarrassed that after Rev. Beeke asked them to join him in prayer before the meal, he stood up and asked the entire restaurant to do the same, and prayed in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. My immediate thoughts were:

1. It should be a rebuke to that man that he was slightly embarrassed
2. I may have felt the same
3. I have too much of the fear of man to do the same, shame on me

 

[Deleted member 13126]

I remember a Presbyterian minister and podcast host relaying a story that he and another minister were having lunch with Rev. Joel Beeke at (if memory serves) a Pizza Hut in Grand Rapids. He explained that he was shocked and somewhat embarrassed that after Rev. Beeke asked them to join him in prayer before the meal, he stood up and asked the entire restaurant to do the same, and prayed in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. My immediate thoughts were:

1. It should be a rebuke to that man that he was slightly embarrassed
2. I may have felt the same
3. I have too much of the fear of man to do the same, shame on me

I’ve never heard of anyone standing up and asking the entire restaurant to stop and pray. Amen!

 

[Deleted member 13126]

I have heard accounts of Shaeffer doing that at L’Abri back in the day much to the annoyance of many. People were hungry and the food would get cold.

Ecclesiastes 5:2 KJV may be applicable.

 

[ZackF]

Ecclesiastes 5:2 KJV may be applicable.

Right. There are times for longer prayers, there are times for shorter prayers.

 

[J.C. Philpot]

Though I do not consider myself apt at translating this kind of texts. The prayer roughly translates:

O Lord, we thank You with all our hearts,
For the necessary and for the abundance
While many people eat bread of sorrows
You feeded us mildy and well
But give that our soul
Not stick to this perishable life
But do all what You commands
And at the end live with You forever
Amen.

I remember this prayer (the Dutch version) from when I was young, when we visited our family in Zeeland. Nowadays I pray this myself at some times after the meal, with my family.