Napāt,Prayers over food and drink are a special type of thanksgiving prayer. The connection between them is shown quite strongly in the North American harvest festivals that have been given the name “Thanksgiving.”
As Pagans, we believe that it’s not only the gods we should thank for our food, but the food itself. Our eating is a constant reminder of one of the central mysteries of neo-Paganism, the connection between life and death. Our life depends on the death of our food, so it’s only proper that we should thank that food.
Eating is, in fact, a sacrifice. In ancient times, this was made clear, because sacrificed animals were eaten. People shared their animals with the gods and with each other. Eating together draws people together, and eating with the gods brings us closer to them.
Even though we no longer conduct religious sacrifices, we take part in the give and take of life and death. Even today, we can think of the killing required for food (even vegetables die to feed us) as a kind of sacrifice, to be acknowledged to the deities, and to the animal and plant Spirits.
You might want to do this in reverse. Instead of a sacrifice being your food, let your food be a sacrifice. The Romans gave a bit of their food at each meal to the hearth goddess. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to offer a bit of yours to her, or to the Ancestors, or to your family’s patrons—if not at every meal, then at least regularly.
Thank you, O Mighty Ones,
for all you have done for me.
May I not forget you, though the world turn against me.
Though I fall with my enemies rejoicing about me,
it will be your presence that will comfort me,
and I will still thank you for the incomparable rightness of every moment.
The gifts the gods give me are many and wonderful
and I am grateful to the gods for their generosity.
Knowing that it would be wrong to forget them,
I lift my voice in thankfulness.
Holy Ones, thank you, for all that you have done.
Standing in the presence of the mighty gods,
my mind is turned toward all I’ve been given.
I thank them, as is only their due,
for they pour out blessings on all their children.
It is only fair to thank you, blessed ones:
You have given me so much;
I give to you from my little.
Sitting in the presence of those who deserve praise,
I turn my thoughts to thankfulness,
thinking of the gifts they have granted to the world
they love so well.
Intertwined with the world’s substance,
the gods have created and sustained,
brought forth and upheld,
wonders beyond humanity’s lifetimes’ imagining.
Out of the multitude of scattered gifts,
I have been witness to only a few.
Yet still I experience awe;
still I am moved to gratitude;
still I approach you with thanks.
Givers of gifts, accept my words as my own gift to you in return.
From you have come answers to my prayer.
From me come offerings in gratitude.
See what I give you:
a grateful offering with grateful words.
In payment of my vow, I offer [offering] to [name of god or Spirit].
Thanks to my patron for my continued prosperity,
for my continued health, for my continued life.
Continually I will pray to you,
always remembering you.
From you have flowed freely many gifts,
given with no conditions, offered with open hands.
Continually you have renewed the world with your largesse;
Continually you have brought new wonders into being.
I come before you, then, with unnecessary gratitude;
no matter what my actions are, yours will not change.
What you do is in perfect accord with your nature.
I wish to be more like you, to take you as my model,
And, though my gifts may be unnecessary for you,
they are all too vital for me.
I hold them out to you, then, generous ones.
See—I am generous, too.
The circle turns, it turns around,
carrying me with it, and I turn, too.
These wonderful things that came from the gods
are being returned to them, to keep the turning going.
The balance is kept:
I do not only take,
I also know how to give.
Even if “Thank you” would be enough, I offer you this in gratitude for answering my prayer.
If I have forgotten your presence today, [god’s name],
thinking I faced troubles all alone,
forgive me this failing.
Knowing that now, when I had the time to stop and think,
I knew that you were there
and that your help made things easier,
made adversities gentler,
slowed my anger
cleared my thinking,
so that my judgments came, as much as is possible,
from a peaceful heart.
We can take it for certain, can’t we, that your help will be needed again tomorrow
When I need your help then,
if I don’t think of you then,
in the heat of the moment,
please don’t hold it against me.
When time comes for reflection, I will think of you again with thanks.
From those into whose hands we place a gift we expect words of thanks,
from those to whom we mail one, a thank-you note.
Those who don’t follow these rules of etiquette we call rude.
We don’t want you to call us rude, Mother and Father,
or to be rude even if you are too polite not even to think it,
so we thank you for your many presents,
especially the ones you’re giving us now.
The Goddess has given birth to another wonder
in this marvelous life of mine.
I will thank her daily for the gift of life
and for all she distributes from her free and open hands.
I am burning incense to the Queen of Heaven,
a sweet smell on Earth to bring her to mind,
to give her the best of what I have,
as is only her proper share.
For clean water, I am grateful, Apā Napāt,
so I pour out for you some of my own drink.
I asked to do well, and Apollo gave me even more:
he gave me Excellence.
And with his arête I performed,
and all who heard and saw praised me for my skill.
Now I thank you, Apollo, for your part in this,
praise your arête so well known
and so welcomed to all who turn to you.
My performance was a hymn of praise
and this prayer one of thanks.
It is proper to set aside a portion of each offering for Mitra,
who brings people together to eat in groups.
So I place this food apart separately,
in its own dish,
to be offered later in my home shrine
for the friend of mankind,
who joins us all in friendship.
Arrows of flame flash from above,
cast by Perkūnas, champion against enemies.
And I raise my hands in wonder of this beauty,
and that such power can protect us as well as destroy.
This is why I look on you with gratitude,
you who are our champion, our hero.
Far from where the river springs,
the ship parts the unstopped river,
at the heart of a city brightly lit,
renowned for art; for beauty and splendor;
your gift to the world, Sequana,
and for this my gift to you.
Praise to you, Taranis, riding in your wagon from beyond the mountains,
its wheels spraying rain with each turn,
over the waiting, parched land.
Such a gift inspires one in return.
Ours is so little compared to yours, but it’s our best, Thunderer,
and given in true gratitude.
From your place beneath the bottom of the hill
you send fertility to all the earth,
to crops and cattle,
bringing prosperity to all who rely on it,
and all who rely on them,
not only family but merchants,
and all who rely on them,
sending rings of wealth throughout our land.
Though we may at times fear your darkness,
we are wisest when we think on you with respect
and thank you for all that you do.
We send our gratitude to you, then,
for the life and wealth you bring.
On this holy day I worship dear Žemynėlė,
with poured-out beer,
with the drinking of beer,
first for you, then for us.
Let us drink together:
a gift for you, and then an honoring,
in thanks for your continual giving.
Though you can’t really say it’s alive,
my car drinks the blood of plants and animals that died long ago.
So I thank their spirits for making it possible for me to drive to where I will buy my own food,
whose spirits I will also thank.
A perfect feather I found on the beach
I place on the sea’s edge for the waves to take,
a gift for the Ocean Spirits,
completing the circle.
The Spirits are riding on the wind.
Here is a gift for you:
flour, the raw stuff of food,
scattered in the air to be carried away with you.
I am setting a place at my table for the High Gods.
Blessed ones, come and eat with me!
I am setting a place at my table for the gods of my household.
Blessed ones, come and eat with me!
I am setting a place at my table for the Ancestors.
Blessed ones, come and eat with me!
I am setting a place at my table for the Land Spirits.
Blessed ones, come and eat with me!
Numinous Ones of Earth and Sky,
eat with me, be my guests.
I invite the Holy Ones to my table.
Come; sit with me, eat and drink with me.
I offer you the hospitality of my home.
You are always welcome here.
We sit down to the table of the gods
where the company of heaven meet,
and we share with them our food.
Blessed ones, be our dining companions!
Upon this food, place your blessings,
Holy Ones.
Our eating of it is a ritual of praise for all you have done.
Come, holy gods, and bless this food that will feed
my body, through the actions of which you are
daily made manifest in the world.
This food is the work of many made palpable.
Before eating, it is right to acknowledge their labor.
We thank all of these people
and all their protective Spirits.
In the sacrificial fire, I place an offering of food:
I send my prayers to the god with my body.
Holy Ones, receive this offering.
Be honored by it, by my life’s true sacrifice.
The food that I eat is offered to you.
[Here, the sacrificial fire is the life within us. We place our food on it, and bless the gods with whom we have relationships.]
I pour out this drink to you, Holy One:
share my good fortune.
I place this food out for you, Holy One:
share my friendship.
How wonderful!
How marvelous!
This food is the gift of the Earth from which it grew.
How wonderful!
How marvelous!
This food is the gift of those who drew it forth and those who prepared it.
How wonderful!
How marvelous!
This food is the gift of the gods and goddesses.
How wonderful!
How marvelous!
We give, in return, our thoughts and prayers,
our words and deeds.
A gift for a gift,
with thanks to the givers.
How wonderful!
How marvelous!
Gathered here with family and friends, we take time to consciously think of everything the Gods deserve to be thanked for. In fact, even if they had done nothing in this last year but gather us to be here with our loved ones, they would be deserving of gratitude. For this, and for so much else, thank you, Holy Ones, who respond to our love and gifts with those of your own. Your people here today will always thank you, with sincerity, with mindfulness, with daily and true devotion, for all you give us.
Blessings and thanks to the earth from which this food comes.
Blessings and thanks to the plants and animals from which it is formed.
Blessings and thanks to the people who brought it forth and prepared it for us today.
And blessings and thanks to that One,
Infinite, Mysterious,
lying behind it all and giving it and us our being.
This drink, life’s changing.
This food, life’s form.
Seated across from us,
or to our right or left,
or in their own mysterious sacred way,
may the Gods come to eat with us.
Though my food may be fast,
may my life be long:
this is my prayer,
God and Goddess.
Models for our lives,
Lady and Lord,
when we eat this food, we are doing as you do,
taking part in the chain of life and death.
Bless this food, then,
that it might nourish both body and spirit.
Mother Earth, who gives life to all living things,
Lord of the Harvest, who turns them into food:
bless, together, this food I am about to eat.
Bless it, Mother; bless it, Lord:
may I eat holy food.
The grain was thrust into the ground:
it became a baby.
It grew into a plant:
it became a child.
It produced seed:
it became a man.
It was cut down:
it became our bread.
Fertile God, who freely cast the gloried seed in the welcoming body of Earth,
we worship you when we eat this bread.
Mixing, joining together.
Slapping against the board, kicking in the womb.
Kneading, moving down the birth canal.
Rising, coming into the world.
Baking, passing through the flames.
Eating: he is in us.
The God goes into the grain: the God is the grain.
He grows as the grain grows, for he is the grain.
He is cut down, he is threshed, with the grain,
the God who is the grain.
He is ground into flour, which is the God.
Baked from the flour formed from the grain,
the bread both contains and is the God:
by eating it we draw the God in,
by consuming it the God becomes part of our bodies.
We re-form the threshed and ground God.
For all we eat
For all we drink
For all you give:
Thank you, All-Gods.
Blesséd, blesséd, blesséd food,
blesséd may it be;
blesséd, blesséd, blesséd Gods,
may it be blessed in me.
Thank you, cow,
white, or red, or spotted—of whatever kind—for your white milk,
and cheese,
and golden butter,
which you give us for food.
Within this water lurks fire
and so it is a dangerous thing,
where opposites dwell in balance.
But the dangerous spots of in-between
are also the places of power.
God of ecstasy, guide us in the proper use
of this thing of danger and power.
May we use it well for your purposes.
Mother Earth, all of this set before us comes from you,
coming through the labor of women and men,
who planted and harvested,
who bred and butchered,
who preserved and transported,
who brought to market and cooked.
We have worked with you,
co-laborers in this employment.
And now we thank you for the opportunity
to share in love with you this meal.
Here is some of the food, so that we might eat together
as loving friends do.
You are fire in water, Agni, in the lightning-filled rain.
You are fire in water, Soma, in the inspiring plant.
You are fire in water, Apā Napāt, in the gold palace.
Fire in water is the source of greatest power
and fire in water is what I drink here.
Vesta who cooks our food,
here is your share of the meal,
set aside, to be burned later,
to feed you.
Praise to you, souls of the plants and animals whose lives were spent to make this food:
May these words turn your deaths into a holy sacrifice.
Plants whose lives I take,
animals whose deaths I cause:
here you are remembered,
and your endings are not for nothing.
I tell you this:
your deaths will be transformed into life
and that life will be one of which the gods will approve,
one lived in honor of their sacred law.
Come, Spirits of my food,
and feed my life.
We will live our lives together from now on,
you living in me.
Grown, gathered, and ground, this grain is Earth’s gift.
Bred, born, and butchered, this beef is Earth’s blood.
We who eat do not forget.
Our eating is worship of those whose gift and blood this is.
Praise to all the Spirits, the gods and goddesses, of all the rivers of the world.
This drink is of their waters, filling me with them.
Praise and thanks.