Sometimes dining with fellow Christians is quite a bother because there will be the "issue" of saying grace (i.e. giving thanks to God), often outloud. And there will be much delegating,(or taichi-ing, as it is known here colloquially) often to the youngest member of the group to do the honours. I for one get this rather often in the past. :P Not that I have not been asked to say grace these days, it is just less often when there are younger people around me. ;)Here is a disclaimer: I do not hate saying grace, on the contrary I feel inclined to say grace for most of my meals (unless I am really low on blood sugar, hehe.) It's just that I dislike saying grace on behalf of others and I get annoyed when others expect me to say grace on behalf of them.
QUESTIONS: Why do you need me to be thankful on behalf of you? Can't you be thankful yourself? Can't you be grateful on your own? And if you want me to say grace, then do not complain when I say it my way, whether it is the traditional: "Bless us, O Lord and these your gifts which we are about to receive from your bounty. Throught Christ our Lord, Amen." or the less-conventional-seemingly-flippant: "Thank you Jesus for the food. Thank you and Buh-bye."
So there. *sigh* :)
5 comments:
Saying grace is still something that my family try to get used to 'cos my husband is not a Christian. During family dinners, we only say a short one during festivals like CNY eve and Christmas. It is sort of 'weird' to ask the head of the family 'chup, wait we say thank you to Jesus first' so I usually, silently thank God in my head. This is especially worse when we have family gatherings where none of them are Christians except my kids and I. In God's own time....
Lilian: Yup, I get what you mean. Last year's Christmas was doubly awkward as we sang "Happy Birthday to Jesus" in the presence of and with non-Christian family and friends! Haha!
Well, if the Christian Brethens who insist that you say grace collectively and you are the one who has to say cos they invite you to do it, then you invite them to pray together....one way is to do it is.. " Let us now together pray, In the Name of the Father, Of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen, Lord, bless this food and they who have prepared it, which we are about to receive from your goodness, through Christ our Lord. Amen." and all of you can make the sign of the Cross together... it has never been much of a problem saying grace for me myself alone or as a collective..remember, "when two or three are gathered in my name, I am always there" and a meal shared together with friends in the name of Christ is a gathering of Christians and by saying grace, we not only give thanks to God for our meal, but we are inviting Christ to be the special guest of honour and to participate in our meal. Remember, we are called to serve everyone and there is nothing wrong in being the one saying grace for everyone else, (make sure its not one of those long winded ones, I believe that preaching and evangelising should be at the proper time and not during prayer before meals....nothing more agonising than seing hot food turning cold because the one saying grace is as long winded as how I type my comments hahahaha)
However, if they complain that the Blessing you utter is too short, then just tell them to stuff it...God knows what's in your heart and mind and he doesn't have to listen to all those long winded prayers...besides..I'm sure he's too much of a busy man.
Remember..the importance of saying Grace before meal is to give thanks to God for the meal and to bless those who partakes of it and especially those who prepares it for us..(so often forgotten, but we really have to Thank God for those who prepared the meal, be it ourselves, our parents, or the chefs) It is also a Sign of our Faith, to be brave enough to show our Christian faith especially eating in public places.
/N.B. If you still don't like saying grace for everyone, then simply ask them to Make the Sign of the Cross and pray in silence themselves. My Late Beloved Grandmother and Aunties usually make a silent sign of the cross and pray silently before every meal, even for their afternoon tea, even though it may be just a cup of tea and biscuits. A simple Sign of the Cross is sufficient a prayer and powerful a prayer of our Christian faith to remind us that we are partaking of this meal through the thanks and mercy of God.
Hoo boy..another long winded comment :P
quavadis: "just tell them to stuff it..." - LOL! Don't worry about the length of your post, really appreciate the time you took to post this. hehe. :)
A pleasure, anyway, jst posted my reflection on the Divinity of Christ, one of my many postings against the attack on the Divinity of Christ that seems to be cropping out on the media this past few days as a prelude to the Da Vinci Code Movie release. Discovery Channel did a nice documentary that basically puts the Da Vinci Code as a Hoax..u should watch that if there's a repeat.
Basically, they goes to the key point of the story, the Bloodline of Jesus and they proved that the Supposed Priory de Sion and the claim of Merovignian Descent and Grand Master was all the fabrication of Pierre de Plantard to make himself famous and he eventually confesed that he created that false bloodline...interesting documentary to watch.
Post a Comment