Grace!

November 20th, 2021| Topic: RaMbLeS | 2

Norman Rockwell painted an iconic cover for the Saturday Evening Post (November 24, 1951) called “Saying Grace.” (It was auctioned a few years ago for $41 million!)

The picture shows a young boy and an older woman in a diner, heads bowed, saying grace before their meal. Other patrons, smoking and reading the newspaper, appear to be curious about that “strange” ritual. One might have thought that that “strangeness” has only increased in the intervening 71 years. But one would be wrong.

In a recent article for The Washington Post, writer Emily Heil asserts that almost half of all Americans said they regularly took a moment before meals to give thanks, according to a poll conducted a few years ago by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation. This week, it will probably be heard at many tables during Thanksgiving dinner. After all, that’s what the holiday is for.

Kenneth Minkema, executive editor of the Jonathan Edwards Center at the Yale Divinity School, emphasizes the value of those words uttered before meals, even if they are always the same:

Reciting the same words together or participating in a regular ritual creates a feeling of connection with those around us. It serves to strengthen and confirm the bond of family or community and helps to acknowledge that we are one.”

OK, it grounds us in the community we have around the table.

And, said Minkema:

And across religions, it is also an acknowledgment of the source of the food before you. There is the creator/God but also other people, the earth, and the moral responsibilities that go along with that. It also has a way of pulling you inward and reminding you of those responsibilities.”

OK, I am to be a responsible consumer, especially of food.

Another, M. J. Ryan, author of A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meals from Buddha to the Beatles (yup, that’s right!), declared:

Whether the motivation is religious or secular, taking a moment to truly feel gratitude can affect one’s life long after the dishes are cleared. The human brain is hardwired to focus on the negative. But taking in the good is a counterbalance to that negativity bias we have in our brains.”

OK, I need to be optimistic.

Tim O’Malley, the academic director for Notre Dame’s Center for Liturgy, pointed out.

A kind of intentional slowing down is what saying grace is all about. If you think about the modern household, it’s efficient— we get together, we eat, we run. Saying grace is a note of slowing down.”

OK, I need to reduce the pace.

Rockwell, who was not a church goer, made it clear that his painting did emphasize the piety of the grandmother and boy in an irreligious world. His interest was more in capturing the thoughtful attitude of the patrons. He wrote in his journal:

The people around them were staring, some surprised, some puzzled, some remembering their own lost childhood. But all, respectful.”

OK, I should be respectful.

But, above all, I need to be simply thankful. To God!

I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart …
I will be glad and rejoice in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, Most High.
Psalm 9:2

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Psalm 107:1

We, Your people and the sheep of Your pasture
will give thanks to You forever;
from generation to generation we will recount Your praise.
Psalm 79:13

Have a blessed Thanksgiving … and do say grace!

SOURCE:
The Washington Post