Catholic Prayer Before Meals
“Bless us, O Lord”: the grace before and after meals, in English and Latin, with short graces for children, Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving
The Catholic prayer before meals is: “Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.” Make the Sign of the Cross before and after it. After the meal, the grace is: “We give thee thanks, almighty God, for these and all thy gifts, which we have received through Christ our Lord. Amen.” Neither is obligatory; the Church encourages both.
Quick Summary
- Before: Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
- After: We give thee thanks, almighty God, for these and all thy gifts, which we have received through Christ our Lord. Amen.
- Begin and end with the Sign of the Cross
- Both have Latin forms, from the Church’s traditional table blessing
- No obligation attaches to either; the custom is encouraged, not commanded
Full Explanation
The Catholic prayer before meals is one of the shortest prayers in Catholic life and one of the most used. In English: Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen. It is said after the Sign of the Cross, at table, before eating, and most Catholic children learn it before they can read.
What the words are doing is worth a second of attention, because they are more precise than their familiarity suggests. The blessing asked for is on us and on the gifts, in that order. And the gifts are described as coming from thy bounty — not earned, not deserved, given. It is a prayer about receiving, said at the one moment of the day when receiving is unavoidable and obvious.
There is a second half that far fewer people know. The grace after meals, in the form most English-speaking Catholics say it, runs: We give thee thanks, almighty God, for these and all thy gifts, which we have received through Christ our Lord. Amen. A more literal translation of the Latin is: We give thee thanks, almighty God, for all thy benefits, who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen. In many households it is followed by a prayer for the dead — May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace — which is an old and startlingly good custom: you have just been fed, and the next thought is of those who no longer eat.
Both prayers belong to the Church’s traditional table blessing, the Benedictio mensae of the Roman Ritual, and both have Latin forms still in use. The Latin before is Benedic, Domine, nos et haec tua dona, quae de tua largitate sumus sumpturi, per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen. After: Agimus tibi gratias, omnipotens Deus, pro universis beneficiis tuis, qui vivis et regnas in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
As for obligation: there is none. No precept of the Church requires grace at meals. It is a custom, and the Church encourages it in the strongest terms she uses for things she is not commanding. Which means the reason to keep it is the reason it survived — not that you must, but that a household which stops for four seconds before eating is a different household from one that does not.
How do you say grace before a meal?
- Wait until everyone is at the table and the food is served, before anyone starts.
- One person leads. In many families it is a parent; in many others it is the youngest child who can say it, which is a good way to teach it.
- Make the Sign of the Cross together: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
- Say the grace, everyone together or the leader alone with everyone answering “Amen.”
- Add an intention if you like. Someone who is sick, a guest, a birthday, the cook.
- Make the Sign of the Cross again, and eat.
That is all. It takes less than ten seconds, which is why it survives in busy households. At the end of the meal, before anyone leaves the table, say the grace after meals the same way.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Catholic prayer after meals
The grace after meals is the half most Catholics never learned, and it finishes what the first grace began. Before the meal we ask; after it we thank. It is said at table, before anyone gets up, with the Sign of the Cross.
We give thee thanks, almighty God, for these and all thy gifts, which we have received through Christ our Lord. Amen. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
The second part, for the dead, is an old custom rather than part of the grace, and many families keep it: having just been fed, you remember those who no longer sit at the table. For the full tradition of praying for them, see prayers for the dead.
What is a good short grace?
The traditional grace is already short: twenty-two words, about five seconds. If you need something shorter still, for a sandwich at your desk or a meal eaten alone, any sincere thanks to God is a grace. Two short forms many people use:
Lord, bless this food and the hands that prepared it, and give bread to those who have none. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for this food. Amen.
These two are the site’s own, and there is nothing special about their wording. The first adds what Pope Francis asked a grace to remember: those who work to provide our food, and our solidarity with those in greatest need (Laudato Si’ 227).
A Catholic prayer before meals for children
Small children pick up “Bless us, O Lord” quickly when they hear it at every meal. Until they have it by heart, a shorter grace they can say by themselves gives them a real part at the table. This one is ours, written to be easy to remember:
Thank you, God, for this food, thank you for my family, bless the people who made it, and help the ones who are hungry. Amen.
Let a child lead the Sign of the Cross, then the grace. Jesus asked that the children be brought to him: “Allow the little children to come to me! Don’t forbid them, for God’s Kingdom belongs to such as these” (Mark 10:14). A child leading grace is that verse at the dinner table.
A Catholic grace for Christmas dinner
On a feast, many families say the traditional grace and add a line for the day. For Christmas, the site’s own addition:
Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Lord Jesus, born for us in Bethlehem, be the guest at our table today, and give your peace to every home that has no feast. Amen.
A Catholic grace for Easter
After forty days of Lent, the Easter meal is a feast in the full sense. Add an Alleluia, which the Church does not sing through Lent and sings again at Easter:
Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Risen Lord, you made yourself known in the breaking of the bread. Make yourself known to us at this table. Alleluia, alleluia. Amen.
The second part recalls Emmaus, where the disciples recognised the risen Christ when “he took the bread and gave thanks” (Luke 24:30).
A Catholic grace for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday rather than a feast of the Church, but it suits a Catholic table: the word Eucharist itself means thanksgiving. Many families say the traditional grace and then go around the table, each person naming one thing they are thankful for this year. A short Catholic form:
Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. For this year, for this table, and for everyone around it, we give you thanks. Amen.
For a longer Thanksgiving table grace, a grace for a hard year with an empty chair, a Thanksgiving grace for children and the Bible verses to read before the meal, see our Bible verses about gratitude, which has a full Thanksgiving section.
Do Catholics have to say grace before meals?
No. No law of the Church requires it, and missing grace is not a sin. But the Church asks for it warmly and often. The Catechism lists grace before and after meals among the daily rhythms of prayer that the Church proposes to the faithful (CCC 2698), and it describes Christian families saying grace at meals as a natural way to thank God for daily bread (CCC 2834).
Pope Francis made it a direct request. In his encyclical Laudato Si’ (2015), he wrote: “I ask all believers to return to this beautiful and meaningful custom.” He gave four reasons for it: it reminds us of our dependence on God, strengthens gratitude for creation, acknowledges those whose labour provides our food, and reaffirms our solidarity with those in greatest need (Laudato Si’ 227).
Saying grace in a restaurant or with guests
In a restaurant, a quick Sign of the Cross and the grace said quietly is enough; nobody needs to stop the table. Many Catholics simply make the Sign of the Cross and pray the words silently. There is no need to hide it either. St. Paul gave thanks for bread in front of a ship full of frightened sailors (Acts 27:35).
With guests who are not Catholic, or not believers, the host can lead a grace everyone can hear without being asked to join: a short thanks to God for the food and the company. Guests are rarely offended by being prayed for, and often touched. “Whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Grace is thanksgiving made a habit. For Scripture on it: Bible verses about gratitude — thanksgiving as a practice rather than a mood.
“Give us this day our daily bread” is the oldest grace of all, and the Catechism reads it as both food and the Bread of Life: the Our Father, line by line — and why the Greek word for “daily” appears nowhere else in the New Testament.
What the Bible Says
For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.
The nearest thing to a scriptural warrant for the practice, and the source of the idea that a blessing sanctifies what is eaten.
He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass; and he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.
Christ himself blesses before a meal, at the feeding of the five thousand and again at the Last Supper. The custom is imitation before it is anything else.
When he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave it to them.
At Emmaus, the two disciples recognise the risen Christ at the moment he blesses and breaks the bread at their table.
When he had said this and had taken bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all; then he broke it and began to eat.
Paul, on a foundering ship, in front of a crew of pagans. The setting is the point: grace is not a domestic nicety reserved for calm days.
What the Catechism Says
CCC 2698The Church proposes daily rhythms of prayer to nourish continual prayer, and names grace before and after meals among them, alongside morning and evening prayer.
CCC 2834Even when we have worked for it, the food we receive is still a gift from the Father, and it is good to ask him for it with thanksgiving, as Christian families do when they say grace at meals.
CCC 1078Blessing is a divine and life-giving action whose source is the Father; when a person blesses, it means adoration and surrender to the Creator in thanksgiving.
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