For a few years now, gratitude has been the rage. Thankful lists, thankful apps, thankful hashtags, thankful journals… What a polite culture. Thank goodness. Thank WHO? (“The worst moment for an atheist,” said GK Chesterton, “is when he’s really thankful and has no one to thank.”) And thanks for what? Why should the breaking of bread be linked to prayer any more than a dozen other dailies? In his essay, ‘Grace Before Meat’, Charles Lamb said, “I am disposed to say grace upon twenty other occasions in the course of the day besides my dinner. I want a form for setting out upon a pleasant walk, for a moonlight ramble, for a friendly meeting, or a solved problem. Why have we none for books, these spiritual repasts—a grace before Milton—a grace before Shakespeare—a devotional exercise proper to be said before reading ‘The Fairie Queene’?” Why do we have ‘the saying of grace’? In this Daily Bible series, let’s revisit a largely perfunctory practice, roots and all, and stir it up with some passion and perspective. * Christian apologist/ philosopher/author/literary and art critic
Author: Sarah Raiter
You'll now find Sarah empty-nesting at St James Old Cathedral where Mike and she live and worship. https://containingcolor.wordpress.com