Grace times two 

I can’t remember how it started. One of my siblings or I must have asked if we could start saying a new grace we had heard somewhere, possibly on “Romper Room” on TV. 

“God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food. Amen.” 

My parents let us add the prayer at the dinner table, but we were already saying the traditional grace: “Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord.” So we just said both. 

Sometimes, when we had guests at the table, we would remember to skip the child’s grace and go straight to the more adult version. But more often than not, half the family would start with “God is great” and the other half would launch into “Bless us, O Lord.” We would fall all over each other in a cacophony of mismatched prayers. 

Then we would laugh, and my father would offer a brief explanation for the confusion before we dove into our doubly blessed food. 

With six children around the table – and sometimes a few extras – dinner was always a wild ride at our house. Praying two graces was more ordinary than the dinner table conversations themselves, which ranged from topic to topic with quotes from “The Princess Bride,” “Song of Bernadette” and other movie favorites thrown in along the way. 

Somehow, the two graces stuck, and even as children grew and grandchildren joined the group, they adapted to the double blessing at the start of the meal. One summer, when my parents and all their children and grandchildren made a trip to the beach, we started praying before dinner, and one of the overtired and hungry preschoolers started crying, “I don’t want Baltimore grace! I don’t want Baltimore grace!” 

He had my sympathy, but we are a family of traditions and the tradition has stayed strong. 

As it turned out, when I started dating John and visited his parents’ house for the first time, I realized they also said two prayers before meals. They prayed the traditional “Bless us, O Lord” and then added a Hail Mary. 

When John and I got married and started our own family, we adopted that approach as our own. I liked the idea of giving the Blessed Mother a nod each time. There is something wonderful about speaking to her together at least once a day. We often have a specific intention to name before we pray the Hail Mary, and that serves as a reminder to name someone in our lives or an issue in our world that needs special attention. 

During this season of gratitude, we might offer standard words or new ones to thank God for his many blessings. He is with us at our dinner table, following along with the conversations, enjoying the connections and perhaps marveling at how the little ones are growing and participating in new ways. 

“The Lord Jesus urges you to pray earnestly and frequently, not offering long and wearisome prayers, but praying often and with perseverance,” said St. Ambrose. 

May this season of Thanksgiving serve as an invitation to connect more fully with God, reaching out to him with gratitude and hope. Whether we say one grace or two or three – or simply share what’s on our hearts with him in our words – we know that he is listening. Amen.  

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