Customer Reviews

A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meal from Buddha to the Beatles with Bookmark

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This diverse collection of beautiful prayers and blessings contains themes which are relevant to whatever gathering I'm a part of. I have used the blessings to begin meetings, as part of a presentation, at family mealtime and for my personal inspriation. I have bought my own copy and have given two other copies as gifts. The language of each blessing speaks very powerfully.

This book is much like Gibrahn's "The Prophet" in that whatever passage you turn to, it is the correct one for your meal's blessing. Whether it is a contemprary figure or Buddah, the author has compiled these prayers to give maximal contemplation without imposing secular overtones to the thought. I have just given away my copy to a close friend who immediately became absorbed.

The entire collection is outstanding, but as we sat down for my grandson's eleventh birthday dinner, I flipped to page 7 and found the perfect reflection on the wondrous gift of being, in itself. It blessed our celebration.

For well over 5 years I have been blessed by well-know and well-documented M. J. Ryan's collections of prayers and quotations of deep wisdom! Many of these have been left out of collections, such as, St. Ignatius' Prayer, ee cummings' "i thank you,God" Walter Rauschenbusch's deeper prayers, Daphne Rose Kingma's many faces, Thomas Merton, May Sarton, W B Yeats, etc. Only recently I searched and found 12 Native American Indian Prayers.

"So when Life Fades, as the fading sunset,
my spirit may come to you without shame."
(Native American Prayer"

One of the most succintly worded themes of the book is by Simon Greenberg: "One does not need to fast for days, meditate for hours at a time to experience the sense of sublime mystery which constantly envelops us." Represented are the unique riches from Seven Biblical quotes, The Buddha, Einstein, and Schweitzer!

Where else could one find such variety of Faith, mood, and/or source of healing alogside life-changing examples of Prayer, and Wisdom? They seem to be profoundly combined and edited! From a collector of Jewels of Poetry, Prayers, and Wisdom! ...Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

This is a nice collection of poems, blessings and short devotionals and they are categorized. I was looking for a book with more traditional blessings that appeal to a house with three teenagers and these selections are just a little too "devotional" and not quite what I was expecting.

The book provides an excellent way to start conversations with your family about being grateful. We've also found it interesting to discuss the various authors. Love the fact that not all the quotes are religous based.

This was exactly what I was looking for...
I am a devout agnostic, part-time Unitarian, with a young son in whom I wish to instill a sense of spirituality, even religiosity. One way I wanted try to do this was by starting a tradition of prayer at meal-times with him. Having no real experience in this activity, I ordered this book...

Organized by season, the prayers evoke an appropriate sense of time and place. The authors are widely varied, and all of the writings utilize wonderful imagery. I believe almost every prayer can be appreciated by people of all faiths, and even atheists who feel a need to express appreciation for what they have before them.

My 3-year-old son has memorized his favorite evening springtime prayer, which goes like this:

Come out! Come out!
From bogs, old frogs
Command the dark.
And look...the stars.

(not sure about the punctuation and I don't remember the author - I'm writing from memory...but you get the idea).

There are of course more traditional prayers than that. And I should mention that even though the title refers to blessings for the evening meal, there are several for morning-time as well, greeting the new day.

I received this book as a gift in 1996 and have used it on many occasions. The last time I read from this at a small dinner party, everyone wanted to know the name of the book and where I got it. That in itself is a testimonial. Most interesting was that all agreed that the three separate blessings I chose (before dinner, after dinner, and wishes for the new year 2008) were appropriate. Enough said!

A LOVELY BOOK OF DAILY THOUGHTS ON GRATITUDE FOR MEALTIME OR ANYTIME. I READ IT DAILY AND HAVE PURCHASED MORE COPIES TO SHARE WITH FRIENDS.

We've loved this book for years (great housewarming or wedding gift) and especially enjoy reading outloud before a special dinner :)