We come to join in the banquet of love.
Let it open our hearts and break down the fears
that keep us from loving each other.

  ~sung by the Dominican nuns

 

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Lord most giving and resourceful,
I implore you;
make it your will
that this people enjoy
the goods and riches you naturally give,
that naturally issue from you,
that are pleasing and savory,
that delight and comfort,
though lasting but briefly,
passing away as if in a dream.

 ~Aztec Prayer from the 1500's

 

We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us.
We return thanks to the rivers and streams,which supply us with water.
We return thanks to all herbs,
which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases.
WE return thanks to the corn,
and to her sisters, the beans and squash, which give us life.
We return thanks to the bushes and trees, which provide us with fruit.
We return thanks to the wind,
which, moving the air, has banished diseases.
We return thanks to the moon and the stars,
which have given us their light when the sun was gone.
We return thanks to our grandfather He-no,
that he has protected his grandchildren from witches and reptiles,
and has given to us his rain.
We return thanks to the sun,
that he has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye.
Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit,
in whom is embodied all goodness,
and who directs all things for the good of his children.

 ~Iroquois Prayer from the 1800's

 

Though our mouths were full of song as the sea,
and our tongues of exultation as the multitude of its waves,
and our lips of praise as the wide-extended firmament;
though our eyes shone with light like the sun and the moon,
and our hands were spread forth like the eagles of heaven,
and our feet were swift as hinds,
we should still be unable to thank thee and bless thy name,
O Lord our God and God of our fathers,
for one thousandth or one ten thousandth part of the bounties
which thou has bestowed upon our fathers and upon us.

 ~from the Hebrew Prayer Book

 

Call out to the Almighty
Everyone on earth!
Serve God with gladness.
Come before Him with joyous song!

Know that the Almighty, He is God.
It is He who made us and we are His,
His nation and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving.
Enter His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

The Almighty is good.
His loving-kindness endures forever.
And His faithfulness continues
From generation to generation.

 ~Psalm 100

 

Come, Lord Jesus, our guest to be
And bless these gifts
Bestowed by Thee.
And bless our loved ones everywhere,
And keep them in Your loving care.

 ~Moravian Blessing

 

To our Gods of old, we bless the ground
that you tred in search of our freedom!
We bless your presence in our lives and in our hearts!
Take of this offering to your delight,
and be filled with our prayers of thanksgiving!
May our lives remain as full as our hearts on this day!

~Yoruban Prayer

 

O, heavenly Father: We thank thee for food and remember the hungry.
We thank thee for health and remember the sick.
We thank thee for friends and remember the friendless.
We thank thee for freedom and remember the enslaved.
May these remembrances stir us to service,
that thy gifts to us may be used for others. Amen.

~Abigail van Buren “Dear Abby”

 

Thanks to Thee, O God, that I have risen today,
to the rising of this life itself;
may it be to Thine own glory,
O God of every gift, and to the glory, aid Thou my soul.
With the aiding of Thine own mercy,
even as I clothe my body with wool,
cover Thou my soul with the shadow of Thy wing.
Help me to avoid every sin,
And the source of every sin to forsake,
and as the mist scatters on the crest of the hills,
may each ill haze clear from my soul, O God.

  ~Thanksgiving Prayer - Irish 

 

May the Lord accept this, our offering,
and bless our food that it may bring us strength in our body,
vigor in our mind and selfless devotion in our hearts for His service.

  ~Thanksgiving Prayer - India: Swami Paramananda 

 

This ritual is one.
  The food is one.
  We who offer the food are one. 
The fire of hunger is also one. 
All action is one.
  We who understand this are one.

~Thanksgiving Prayer - Hindu Prayer For Meals