Season of Graces - Cont.: All Hollows Eve

Halloween Grace

Admits the hobgoblins and pranksters, Lord, we seek a quiet corner this autumn evening, to give thanks for the saints whose day this really is. Be tolerant of our commercialized, costumed fun, even as you remind us of the pillars of faith upon whose shoulders we stand today. Keep our trick-or-treating fun, clean, and safe, our faith memories aware, for it is too easy to lose track of what we really celebrate in the darkness of this night.
~ Margaret Ann Huffman

Corner, June. Graces (1994) 44.

Season of Graces - Cont.: Trees

During this time of Fall (in the northern hemisphere - Spring in the southern) where the trees are turning color and leave falling (or budding forth) I thought this prayer in thanksgiving of trees rather appropriate.

Blessed Be

Joel

Trees!

Our Father, we thank Thee for Trees! We thank Thee for the trees of our childhood in whose shade we played and read and dreamed; for the trees of our schooldays, the trees along the paths where friendship walked. We thank Thee for special trees which will always stand large in our memory because for some reason of our own they became our trees. We thank Thee for the great stretches of trees which make the forests. May we always stand humbly before Thy trees and draw strengh from them as they, in their turn, draw sustenance from Thy bounties of earth and sun and air.

~ Margueritte Harmon Bro

(Margueritte Harmon Bro was an educational missionary in China from 1919 to 1925 and later was editor of Social Action. She is the author of some twenty-five books on religious subjects.)
Cotner. Graces. (1994) 121.

Season of Graces - Cont.: Canadian Thanksgiving

On this Canadian Thanksgiving (2013), here is a blessing from June Cotner (Graces, 1994. 46):

Thanksgiving Blessings

Lord be with us on this day of thanksgiving

Help us to make the most of this life we are living

As we are about to partake of this bountiful meal

Let us not forget the needy and the hunger they feel

Help us to show compassion in all that we do

And for all our many blessings we say thank you

~ Helen Latham

A Season of Graces

With the Canadian Thanksgiving celebration this next weekend followed by the United State's Thanksgiving celebration at the end of November, I thought it might be a good time to explore graces - the blessings before (or after) meals. Over the next few weeks - this Season of Graces - I'll share some from the collection of table blessings we have collected over the years.

As last week, I shared a sermon/reflection on covenants, here is a grace to be prayed around weddings:

Wedding Rehearsal Dinner Grace

Welcome to our party, oh Lord of water-into-wine feastings. For poised at the edge of a great venture are these two people we hold in our hearts as special. Be with them on this the final eve of their separateness, for soon they will become a union. Be present at their daily table as you are with them tonight. And be, Lord, with us, too, their friends and family, as we share a meal, a memory, a toast for new beginnings.

~ Margaret Anne Huffman

Blessed Be

Joel


Resources:
One of the great resources we've found is June Cotner's collection: Graces: Prayers and Poems for Everyday Meals and Special Occasions. (1994) of which this prayer is found on page 63.