Breakfast Blessing (or any meal)

On a recent weekend church retreat I was asked to give a breakfast blessing. The speaker's topic for the weekend had been about raising our energy with soul and spirit, which had involved some Native American spirituality discussions.

After a little thought, I decided to use a bredkfast blessing version I use at home for our meals. This is what my now grown children referred to when they were teens as, "Oh, no, Dad, not your Buddhist prayer."

But I thought that just dumping it on my fellow parish members out of the blue might be a little too much.

Many of them know I'm "out there". A few even know my theology is on the left side of left. By many Christians' standard they would say I don't even qualify as a Christian, but they are soooo wrong. My theology is a mix of indigenous/Native American, Christian, and Zen Buddhism.

Not wanting to offend too many people, after all, I go to church with these people, I decided to preface my breakfast blessing with a little introduction.

After the breakfast blessing prayer I had several requests for copies and decided to put it up here on the website. Especially since I did not have anything to "copy" to give them--only some journal notes from my personal journal. So here it is... (In this I am speaking to the audience. This is expanded a little from the actual talk for my reading audience.)

Preface

I have been asked to give a blessing form breakfast this morning. I thought I needed to make a little introduction before the blessing to help in understanding it.

In honor of this weekend's topic, this is combination Native American-Christian-Buddhist prayer.

Native American spirituality

One of the things I draw from Native American spirituality is their honoring their food and all of Creation. If they have to kill a deer or rabbit for their food, they honor it. They thank the animal (or plant) for giving its life so that they can live.

One of the honorings used in many Native American ceremonies is translated, All My Relations. The Lakota words are, Mitakuye Oyasin. There is a deep understanding in Native American and indigenous cultures in general that we are all related. The rocks, the air, the birds, mother earth, each other. For them, "love thy neighbor", means all of Creation.

Wankantanka is the name of Creator, variously translated as Great Spirit, Grandfather, Great Mystery.

Something has to die for us to live

When my children were young, I thought it very important for them to understand that something had to die for us to live. We had just moved to our farm after an intense year in the Houston, Texas, metropolitan area. We had gotten baby chicks that were now grown. The children had helped us care for and raise them. The chickens were now grown and half of them were roosters. We only needed one rooster.

The children helped me "process" the roosters for the freezers. I would cut their throats and eviserate them, the kids would pull off their feathers. I explained as I went about the dying and living, about trying to minimize the pain and being compassionate, etc. I'm sure only my oldest daughter may have followed what I was saying.

The children did not react with horror. It was not pleasant work, but they were involved in the process from beginning to end. I would gently remind them about our experiences in the months to come when we would serve one of the chickens at a meal.

Interconnectedness

The Buddhist connection to this is the interconnectedness that is also reflected in the Native American spirituality. We are all interconnected to each other and the rest of Creation. Every time one thing changes, it changes the rest of Creation also. We are all one.

The Prayer

Wankantanka, creator of all that is, seen and unseen, we thank you for this food we are about to eat, and ask your blessings of it and us. Let us honor it by remembering that it had to die so that we can live. Help us to remember or come to understand that it took the whole universe to make it for us for we are all connected, all related. Amen

Dr. Y "Thinks" Index

Christ--who was he?
Strange Piece of Ass Syndrome
Christian heresies
Baby boomers are dancing on... e
A Wild Ride
Dannion Brinkley
Circumcision
Why Vision Quest?
Vision Quest 1998
Enlightenment on a Harley
God, faith and the Recession
Breakfast Blessing
The Closet
God as my GPS
Descartes and Christianity
Health Care Reform and Christianity