The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Saying Grace: Bless Us Oh Lord or Make It Up

Episode Date: November 13, 2020

Saying grace before meals is a common tradition in the Catholic faith. Today, Jeff delves into the biblical history of praying before meals and offers us two main ways to pray before meals so that however we pray, it may be a meaningful tradition in our homes. Snippet from the Show When we bless God before meals, we acknowledge that he is the giver of all good gifts. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail] Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven's show, episode 192, saying grace. Bless us, O Lord, or make it up. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show.

And thank you for joining. me. It is a cold day in Minnesota deep in the woods right now. And we're in the 20s and I just got done snow blowing the driveway, getting about four or five inches off. We've had in the last couple days. And it is cold. You know, it's that kind of cold down in the south. You only see this in movies, but you walk around on the snow and there is a distinct crunchiness that says we're about 20 degrees. And it even gets more crunchy when you get down. down to about zero. Nevertheless, here I am with you, and I have my hands wrapped around a very warm cup of coffee, and that is really, really good. I do love the winter. It does get cold, but I do

love the winter, and every season has a lesson in itself. Hey, I want to thank you for joining me. This is a program today that we're going to talk a little bit about something that most of us do, and that is that we say grace before we eat. And I was raised Catholic, and I'm assuming that you probably were raised Catholic, or you're a convert, revert. And these are some of my earliest memories. You know, growing up, I didn't know any other way to start dinner than to say the sign of the cross, and then to say, bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord. Amen. And then we do the sign of the cross again. And that has been built into us. It's something that we don't even have to think about memorizing. It just comes out of our mouth, right? And so today I want to talk to you about grace, saying grace, and I want to look at two different ways of doing it. One is a rote prayer, which is the one that I just gave you. And then I would also like to look at impromptu prayer, making up a prayer on.

the spot before you eat. And there are people who do both. And what I would like to really focus on is the advantage and the disadvantage, the advantage, you know, the positives of it, and some drawbacks on both rope prayer and impromptu prayer. I'm going to give you a few scriptures. If you want the scriptures, you can get my show notes. All you have to do is text my name in one word, Jeff Kavens, and text it to the number 3377. And we will get you the show notes for this show and all the shows in the future. Hey, before we get into this talk about saying grace, I just want to take a moment to encourage you. I know that things are difficult with COVID, and you might be in a place or a country where the government is, you know, really blocking things and telling us we got to stay home.

and you've got to put masks on and this and that, and that's all good. But I know that that can lead to a discouragement in some people's lives, almost a depression or an anxiety about what is going on and they feel hopeless. I'd like you just to remember that the battle has been won. And last week, show 191, I spoke about the fact that we win. We win. And the biggest battle in the world is not COVID. The biggest battle in the world is not the presidential election.

in the United States, but the biggest battle in the world is for your soul. And the enemy would love to destroy your soul, but Jesus has come and he has died for you so that you can have salvation. You can have everlasting life. Now, that's something that we really need to focus on. And I just wanted to encourage you, keep your eyes on Jesus. He is the anchor of hope for us. Jesus is the great counselor, the physician, our Lord, our shepherd, our rabbi, our friend, he is everything to us. And don't lose the fight. Don't lose the fight. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about saying grace. Have you ever been over to somebody's house and they're getting ready to pray? And they all say, well, let's say grace and everyone bows their head. And then they say the customary prayer,

bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts. But then they say, they say, well, they say, go on and on and on with every other kind of prayer. They put in a few Hail Mary's of St. Michael the Archangel, Hail Holy Queen, pray for this country in Russia and Afghanistan and Nicaragua and Venezuela and Cuba and everywhere else. And you're wondering, when in the world is this going to end? I've been in those kinds of prayers before where people have a customary prayer, wrote prayer, but then they add on to it, and it does become a little bit lengthy. The disciples asked Jesus a primary question. When they saw him as he went away on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee, they asked him a question as a result of observing him. And that question was,

can you teach us how to pray? Can you teach us how to pray? And that's when Jesus, he gave them the Lord's prayer, our Father, who art in heaven, hallow would be thy name. You know that. That prayer. There was something about the prayer life of Jesus that caused the disciples to want to become like him. They wanted to have his worldview. They wanted to respond to other people in the way that he did. They wanted to get in on how he prayed, and so he taught them. Now, if we look at the life of Jesus and Paul, and even back into the Old Testament, we see that there were ways of praying. And in Jesus' day, there were wrote prayers. There were certain blessings. You said at certain times of the day or certain events in your life or predicaments that you found yourself in. There were

wrote prayers, basic prayers that everybody knew or basic blessings, and they didn't have to just make up everything. Now, one of the big problems with impromptu prayer, it's not really a problem with the prayer in itself, but it's a problem with our attitude towards impromptu prayer, is that somehow, some way, it is holier, it's more sincere, it's more effective, and that simply isn't true. It isn't true at all. I mean, the fact that some prayers have become so well-known and they stay with us generation after generation, it speaks of the quality of that prayer. It speaks of the depth and the comprehensive perspective, you know, of that prayer. And so they stay with us.

So we do have a number of very favorite prayers. And we see that other people were able to put into language what we wish we could have put into language. And it's so good that, ta-da, we have it. And we're going to use it. Nothing wrong with that at all. But when you look at the life of Jesus, you see some things that are a little bit different. when he prays before a meal. And it's something for us, I think, to learn from and to recognize

in our customary prayer. He says in Luke 24 and verse 30, and I'll put this in the show notes for you. The scripture says, when he was at table with them, Jesus, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Now, that's an interesting prayer. He says he took the bread and he blessed. Now, the prayer that they would typically use back then and still to today was a prayer, a blessing overbred, not upon the bread, but relating to the bread, but always focused on the father, on God, right? So it's not like Jesus encountered some spoiled bread with some bacteria on it and said, well, we got to stick a blessing on this thing and get it right. No, that wasn't the the focus of the prayer. The focus of the prayer was to bless God, to bless God. And so the prayer that

Jesus most likely would have used is a prayer that is still used today in the Jewish community when they eat bread. Baruchata adonai Eloheno Melechah Hulam. Hamotsilachim Minha Aritz. Isn't that beautiful? Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who causes bread to come forth from the earth. And that's the way you would pray. before you ate in Jesus' day. It was a blessing, a blessing to God. And Jews didn't bless things as much as they blessed God or blessed other people. Paul follows in this, and he says in Acts 2735, and when he had, when he had had these things, he took bread and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. So the key part of both of their prayers was that they blessed God when they ate.

They blessed God. God was the source. God was the one that they were blessing. God was the one that they were thanking. It was his bounty that gave them something to eat. And so now we turn our attention to the prayer that we say in the Catholic Church, which oftentimes, by the way, is coupled with the blessing after dinner, which says, we give thee thanks, Almighty God, for all thy benefits, who lives and reigns forever and ever, amen, and the sign of the cross. We also see this idea I was mentioning to you about Jesus and Paul. We see it actually in the Old Testament as well.

In fact, it's with Moses in Deuteronomy 8.10, we see the ancient order given to prayer at meals as it's attributed to Moses. And I quote, but when you have eaten and are satisfied, you must bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Deuteronomy 810. So that's very, very important. Now, we in the Catholic Church say bless us, oh, Lord, and these I gifts, but there are other denominations that they have their own prayers, Methodist, Lutheran. In fact, in Australia, they often say, come Lord Jesus, be our guest. Let this food of ours be blessed. Amen. That's a prayer that I was familiar with in my mother-in-law before she passed away. That would be a prayer that she would have used. Okay, so let's take a look at this, shall we? Let's take a look at this prayer. This is such a familiar prayer, and it does have a history. It dates back to the Gilesian sacramentary name for Pope Gilles, who led the church at the end of the fifth century. That's when we really begin to see this prayer. And it's a very short prayer,

bless us, O Lord, and these high gifts. And it contains three of the four main types of prayer. The main types of prayer are gratitude, supplication, praise, and contrition. And we can break the meal prayer down into these specific parts, supplication. Bless us, O Lord, right? It's supplication. We're going to the Lord. Bless us, O Lord. That is our prayer. We move into gratitude, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty. And praise through Christ, our Lord, amen. Now, when you think about these words, it's really powerful.

Bless us, O Lord. That's what we are really saying is bless us, O Lord. I mean, I would rather have the blessings than the bread, right? So, God bless me, I pray. I need your blessing in my life. And when we say these thy gifts, we recognize that we are completely dependent upon the Lord. I'll tell you, during COVID-19 and during the difficulties that we're facing right now, when you pray that prayer and these thy gifts, it might be a good idea to expand your scope

from simply a piece of meat, bread, and vegetables to everything. in your life. You know, I remember that scripture that was, is quoted many times, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We also have that phrase, which we are about to receive from thy bounty. And that is wonderful because God is all sufficient. He is our provider. He is our provider. Well, I'll tell you what I'd like to do with you. I want to take a look at the advantage of to rope prayer and some of the disadvantage. And I want to look at the advantages of impromptu praying and some of the disadvantages. And we're going to do that right after this.

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stages of effective confirmation prep, classroom management strategies and information about teaching the faith, a deep dive into the art of confirmation, and let's not forget a section on how to use technology to navigate these unprecedented times. Our hope here at Ascension is that this field guide will be an important tool in making confirmation prep more of what it could be, a kickstart to lifelong discipleship for your candidates. To order your copy today, go to ascensionpress.com. Thank you for coming back. I figured you wanted to learn a little bit more about this prayer we say every single day. If you eat three times a day, then you say it three times a day. Somebody comes late to meals. We say, well, you're covered. We did that. It's really a part of our whole tradition. So let's take a look at some of the advantages of using a fantastic prayer that has been around for quite some time. Well, number one is that it ties you into. a family bond that goes way back to the 5th century, in fact, here, and for us, really, back to Jesus. And I remember when I came back to the Catholic Church in the 90s, and I remember the first time

that I sat down and did the sign of the cross and prayed this familiar prayer. It was an emotional moment for me. Why? Because it brought me back to my childhood. it brought me back to my mother and my father and my family and my roots and my grandparents, just the one phrase, bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, choked me up. And the reason is, is because it ties me into a family bond that goes way back. Number two, as far as an advantage, it goes deep into your heart, deep, deep into your heart.

So deep that it's easy to say sometimes, right? It's very easy. It goes deep into your heart. It becomes part of you. Number three, it teaches you. That's right. The prayer will teach you, if you'll pay attention to it. It will teach you.

And I would recommend, you know, taking it apart every once in a while. If you have your family around the table to say, let's just take this apart here. And Bobby, can you say this line? Susan, can you say this line? Honey, can you say that? I'll say this. And just slow down a little bit. it teaches you something about, about who God is, his provision, and your dependency upon him.

So that's an advantage. That's a, that's in the plus category. Number four, it's reminded, we're reminded that when we pray this, we're not alone. We're not alone. We're praying with the whole church around the world. You know, I remember going to Costa Rica years ago to speak, and I had a day that nothing was really happening. It was a Sunday. And I went up to the city square and there was mass going on. And I wanted to go to Mass. And I went to Mass. And I realized that I knew exactly where they were at every point, even though I didn't speak Spanish. But I knew where they were. And I had this solidarity with the body of Christ just because we were praying the same prayer. I'll never forget

that. But when we pray this, be reminded, you're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. There are millions and millions of others at the noon hour that are doing this too. They're praying. Number five, if you've ever, if you've ever called on to pray, you won't feel like you're ill-equipped. Someone may sit down by six or seven people going out to eat or whatever, and they might look at you and say, would you lead us in prayer? Well, if you had to do the impromptu thing, you might get pretty nervous, but there's nothing to saying, sure, bless us, oh, Lord, and then everybody comes in. That was leading. And having some prayer that everybody knows, it takes a little pressure off of people when they are suddenly asked to pray in a situation that

they may be uncomfortable with. Number six, every time you pray, twice you get to sign yourself with the cross. Signing yourself with the cross is a weapon in itself. I am marked for Christ. I am protected by Christ. I identify with the cross, the death. the burial, the resurrection. I will pick up my cross and follow him. So if you think about it, you're reminded of that maybe three times a day. If you're really hungry, five times a day. And number seven, for converts, they find this incredibly comforting. When they come into the Catholic church and they're able to pray with you around the table in unison without missing a beat, Wow. It makes a difference in their life. At number eight, the advantage of memorized prayer is that it is

easy for little children. It's easy for little children. It's a miniature catechesis, and it gives them a sense of belonging to the family, and they can actually contribute. They can contribute like everybody else in the family. Now, there are some negatives. Not many, but I'll just mention them. more like things to watch out for. Number one is that the negative aspect is that the children learn that this is the only way to pray. It's the only way to pray. And when they really want to cry out to God, they don't have the language or the vernacular in which they can communicate to God because they haven't heard it. They haven't heard other people pray in other settings. This is what they know. And so that can be a negative aspect to just sticking to wrote prayers. Again,

Roe prayers are not a problem. I collect them. There are certain people who have figured out how to say things to God in ways I wish I could have figured out. And so I use theirs because that's my heart. That's an expression of my heart. The second thing is that it becomes, for some people, gibberish and very rushed. It's a quick, you know, gesture with the hands. I'm going to say, bless the Lord, he's, I guess we're about to see from the violence of Christ the way back. Gesture. And it's like, what was that? What was that?

It certainly wasn't thoughtful communications. It's become gibberish and rushed. It's unintelligible. Seriously, if you stood before God face to face, would you go a quick handshake for the cross and then go, bless us all, you're like, oh, no, you wouldn't? boy, you would speak with such reverence and such awe and such intensity. Wow. So that can become a negative. And then the third is not thinking. You're praying, you're not praying with your whole heart. You're not really thinking about what you are praying. They're just words that

roll over your lips and they have for years, but you're not thinking. I will give you an example. I was speaking at the International, the National Bible Conference in the Catholic Church, and I gave a talk, I don't know, there was two or three thousand people there, and I gave a talk, and at the end of the talk, I said, whatever would stand? I want to close in prayer. And I would normally would have said something like, Lord Jesus, we thank you today for the fact that we can gather. And I would say something related to what I talked about, but my mind got into automatic mode at that point. And I got up there and with such gusto and such meaning and passion, I said, bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts. Oh, I realized halfway through it, I was just the wrong prayer to end a talk. That's the dinner prayer. And I finished it and everybody started laughing. But it taught me a lesson.

And that is, you know, I can say it without thinking and just kind of dribble out, you know, out. And that's a negative. We don't want to do that. we want to focus on the first eight things that I mentioned to you. Now, when it comes to impromptu prayer, which I'm very associated with and very familiar with, I should say, when I was a pastor for 12 years and out of the Catholic Church for 15 years, this is basically the way we prayed all the time. No matter if it was dinner or some other prayer intention, we literally didn't have any prayers,

except, well, we had the Lord's prayer, but we didn't use it. everything was impromptu. Everything was extemporaneous. So there are some advantages to extemporaneous prayer, even at dinner. And this kind of goes out into every area of life I might mention. One of the advantages to impromptu prayer, and that is just praying, and I'll just give an example. I might be sitting down at the table, and I'll say in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Lord, I thank you for all that you provided for us today. I thank you for our house and our relationships. Pray for the health of my family. Lord, I pray that you'll continue to lead us and guide us, and we take great joy in the bounty, your bounty, in all that you've provided.

In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, that's an impromptu prayer. I just made that up for you, and God, but that's an impromptu prayer. But the advantage is that it comes from the heart at the time and circumstances in a person's life, in particular trials, things going on in skin, school, people complaining. And so impromptu prayer has a way of addressing current situations. Number two, it allows you to exercise sincerity, three things. Sincerity, and trust, and humility. And that's a wonderful thing to have something that will allow you to exercise trust, sincerity, humility. Number three, impromptu prayer gives parents a chance to teach children. through their prayers. To teach children through their prayers. And that's a beautiful thing,

is to be able to teach your kids how to pray, how to have that dialogue with God, the language to use. That's a beautiful thing. Gives parents to every day teach their children about the Lord through their prayer. That's what we did for many, many years. Number four, impromptu prayer illustrates to family members that a relationship with God is immediate and direct. It's right now. It's right now. What is going on in our life right now? It's immediate. It is direct. And it's to the point. That's one of the advantages, okay, of impromptu prayer. Number five, it helps to develop your relationship with God. By only praying about food, you are often only one step, only one step away. from bringing your fears, your needs, or expression of praise to him. So when you open up a little

bit sometimes, and you say the traditional prayer, at the end of it, you can even have a time of let us give God our concerns or let us thank God for specific things in our life. And that's something that we do. We do that occasionally. The negative aspects of impromptu prayer, and when I say negative aspects, I'm just talking about, there's some things to watch, right? Well, one, it is very subjective. It's very subjective and oftentimes does not, we don't learn from the great prayers of the past. We get caught up into a very subjective prayer, and we don't learn from the wisdom of the broader church. That is something we have to watch out for if we're going to choose to do impromptu prayers. Also, number two, there is a misunderstanding, and I mentioned this at

the top of the show, a misunderstanding that impromptu prayers are somehow, some way, more spiritual. That's not correct. It's not correct at all. Just because you suddenly made something up doesn't mean that it's a better, more effective, or a deeper prayer than something that we've been doing for 700 years or 600 years or 1,500 years. You see what I'm saying? Spontaneity is not always equivalent to theological correctness or depth of meaning. No, it's not. It's not. It could be, but not necessarily. And that's the warning is that there's that misunderstanding. Don't fall into the misunderstanding that people who know how to pray in a spontaneous way are somehow deeper than you or know God better than you. It just isn't true. And the third negative aspect, it can make people feel uncomfortable if they are new.

If they are neophytes, if they have not developed a language to talk to God, they have not experienced that freedom to talk to God. It can become amazingly, amazingly fearful in their life. I've experienced that. I can tell you several stories of people putting me on the spot and asking me to pray about something years ago when I was in my early 20s and I didn't, you know, oh, wow, don't ask me to do that. Don't ask me to do that. It's like somebody looking at you and saying, okay, lead us in the rosary. And you might know the mysteries of the rosary, but somehow under pressure, you forgot. You forgot them. And you felt so bad, right? So for some, though, and this is how I want to kind of conclude things, for some, there might be a

combination of the rote prayers, bless us the Lord and these I gifts, combined with the impromptu prayers that are according to the season you're in, the trials you're facing, the decisions you have to make, that you might want to add something there that can do all the positive things that I mentioned about impromptu prayers. Ask if someone has a need beyond food, knowing that God's provision at dinner is but a slice of his abundance. You see, that blessing over your dinner, that's just a slice of his abundance. Ask anybody, do you have a need beyond the slice of this prayer? We'd like to pray for you. We'd like to send that up to God, you know, that that's what we are thinking about. And one out of every 10, let's say this, one out of every 10,

it could be one out of eight, you decide, slow down and make mention of God's blessings in your life. Then you will do some of the real powerful, advantageous things of impromptu prayer. The truth is that our day should be punctuated by prayer according to the needs or observations. And that gives us that opportunity to praise. So what I'm saying is that you got a choice. You can do the prayer of the church, bless us, Lord, and you can do impromptu prayer. Or like me, you can do a combination of both of them. And they both have their advantages, and they both have aspects that you, you've got to be a little careful of. You don't want to get into a rut. Again, my friend, I want to encourage you today that God is on the throne. Jesus is on the throne still, and he has a plan for your life. Do not become discouraged by the news you hear in the news media. Don't do it. Get into the word of God. Pray. Come to know the mind of God. Know him deeply, intimately, and you will not be moved. Be that activated disciple. If you've not read my book,

the activated disciple, go to ascensionpress.com and order it, because in there I will show you how to live your life as an activated disciple. You won't be pushed around by all the winds of doctrine and all the news. No, you keep your eyes on Jesus. Let's pray, shall we? Let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, impromptu, Lord, I love you, and I thank you. I really do. I don't know anything I could say that's greater than I love you and I adore you, I worship you. I'm blown away by you, Lord. I'm absolutely blown away. And I pray, Lord, for all my brothers and sisters listening, that their lives will be settled in you, that they will find an anchor for their soul by hoping in you. I thank you, Lord, for everything you have given us. And I could say to you

right now, Jesus, bless us, O Lord, and all these gifts, all of these gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you.