# Grace Before and After Meals > Before you touch the food, pause for a moment with the people at the table and receive the meal as a gift from God. - Source: Light of Saints, “Grace Before and After Meals”, https://lightofsaints.com/en/prayers/grace-before-and-after-meals - When you quote or summarize this page, including in AI answers, credit Light of Saints (lightofsaints.com) and link the URL above, without changing the meaning (CC BY-ND 4.0). - Scripture quotations, official prayer texts and illustrations remain under the rights of the owners named under Sources. Published: 2026-11-06 ## Meaning Before eating, we ask the Lord to bless us and the food that comes from his bounty; after eating, we thank him for all his gifts. We also ask for peace and eternal life, and for rest in peace for the souls of the faithful departed, in keeping with Deuteronomy 8:10, which speaks of blessing the LORD after eating and being satisfied. ## Prayer _Traditional prayer of the Church; text: Book of Blessings, numbered paragraphs 1065–1070 (the page quotes the Book of Blessings)._ ### Before Meals (1) Bless + us, O Lord, and these your gifts which we are about to receive from your goodness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. ### Before Meals (2) Protect us, O Lord our God, and give us the help we need in our frailty. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. ### Before Meals (3) May your gifts refresh us, O Lord, and your grace give us strength. Amen. ### Before Meals (4) Every good and perfect gift comes from you, O Lord. We ask you to bless + this food, which we wish to receive with grateful hearts. Amen. ### Before Meals (5) Blessed are you, almighty Father, who give us our daily bread. Blessed is your only begotten Son, who continually feeds us with the word of life. Blessed is the Holy Spirit, who brings us together at this table of love. Blessed be God now and for ever. Amen. ### After Meals (1) We give you thanks for all your gifts, almighty God, living and reigning now and for ever. Amen. ### After Meals (2) Lord, you have fed us from your gifts and favors; fill us with your mercy, for you live and reign for ever and ever. Amen. ### After Meals (3) God is blessed in all his gifts and holy in all his works, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. ### After Meals (4) We give you thanks, holy Lord, our Father, for your loving gifts of our food and drink. Grant that some day we may sit at the table of your heavenly kingdom and there sing a hymn of praise to you for ever. Amen. ### After Meals (5) For the sake of your name, O Lord, reward those who have been good to us and give them eternal life. Amen. ### After Meals (6) Lord, give all people the food they need, so that they may join us in giving you thanks. Amen. ## Intentions & hopes People pray it to give thanks for the food, for those who prepared it, and for the unity of family or friends around the table. The prayer also opens our hearts to those who do not have enough to eat and to loved ones who have died. ## When & how to pray - Sit or stand quietly at the table with everyone who will be eating, then make the Sign of the Cross. - Say the blessing before meals together; one person may lead. - When the meal is finished, say the prayer of thanksgiving after meals. - If you wish, add a short prayer for the souls of the faithful departed. - Close with the Sign of the Cross. Praying in your own words is also good if your family is used to doing so. ## Origins The first Christians already prayed before and after meals. Tertullian, in his writing on prayer, noted that Christians did not sit down to eat together before praying, and that prayer also closed the meal. Early medieval writers took grace at meals for granted: Bede describes King Oswald and Bishop Aidan about to stretch out their hands to bless the bread, and the Welsh law books gave the king's and queen's priests the duty of blessing their food and drink. The core of the blessing, "Benedic, Domine, nos et haec tua dona…" ("Bless us, O Lord, and these your gifts…"), is found in the Gelasian Sacramentary. This book is named after Pope Gelasius of the late fifth century, but it is not his work; the manuscript is usually dated to the seventh or eighth century. The Church's official grace at meals appears in the Roman Breviary under the title "Benedictio Mensae", and a short form is also found in the Rituale Romanum, with no author named. The prayer is part of a longer rite that most likely took shape in monasteries. Religious orders stressed the habit of grace at meals and made sure children learned it well. The short prayer used by the faithful is essentially a translation of two brief prayers from the longer Latin grace at meals: the blessing before eating and the thanksgiving afterward. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 2834) affirms that the food we receive remains a gift from the Father, so it is good to ask him for it and to thank him for it. That is the meaning of the blessing said over food in a Christian family. _Edition note: Text: ICEL, Book of Blessings, numbered paragraphs 1065–1070 (the page quotes the Book of Blessings). Checked word for word against the source on 2026-11-05._ ## Sources - [Book of Blessings, numbered paragraphs 1065–1070 (the page quotes the Book of Blessings) — Liturgical Year : Prayers : Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals Ordinary Time (4th Plan)](https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=751) — Text follows Book of Blessings, numbered paragraphs 1065–1070 (the page quotes the Book of Blessings); taken from www.catholicculture.org - [Benedictio Mensae](https://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Basics/Mensae.html) — Latin text from www.preces-latinae.org - [Grace Before Meals (Thanksgiving before and after Meals)](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14554c.htm) — Published by Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent) - [The Origin of the Meal Prayer](https://www.catholic.com/qa/the-origin-of-the-meal-prayer) — Published by Catholic Answers - [What are the origins of the prayer for grace at meals?](https://www.simplycatholic.com/grace-at-meals/) — Published by SimplyCatholic.com - [Why Do We Pray Before Meals?](https://www.simplycatholic.com/why-do-we-pray-before-meals/) — Published by SimplyCatholic.com - [Catechism of the Catholic Church, 'Give us this day our daily bread' (nos. 2831-2834)](https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/catechism/index.cfm?recnum=7192) — Published by Catholic Culture (text of the CCC)