Catholic Prayer: Advent Table Blessing 3
Description:
These prayers are used from the Saturday preceding the First Sunday of Advent through Christmas Eve. They could be included in the ceremony of lighting the Advent wreath.
Prayer:
BEFORE THE MEAL
Leader: The Savior does not call out or lift his voice high, nor does he make himself heard in the open streets. But a voice comes before him saying: "Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord. Clear a highway across the desert for our God."
ALL: Every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill brought low.
Leader: Lord, bless the food we are about to eat and bless the cooks (name them) who have labored to prepare it. Make us all a sign of the One who is to come. We make this prayer in his name, both now and for ever.
ALL: Amen.
AFTER THE MEAL
Leader: Give us grateful hearts, our Father, for all your mercies and grant us the grace to love others as fully as you have loved us, through Christ our Lord.
ALL: Amen.
Prayer Source: Prayers at Meals by Michael Kwatera, O.S.B. and Dietrich Reinhart, O.S.B., The Liturgical Press
