Prayer before meals?

the Beginning of the blessing sounds like a Hebrew "Baruch", which starts most traditional Jewish blessings for various things.

Thought this was interesting thread so I hope you don't mind me butting in here a bit.

We say 3 prayers at family gatherings

"Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts for which we are about to receive. From thy bounty, through Christ, our Lord, Amen."

"Come Lord Jesus, be our Guest, let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen."

"We thank thee Lord for happy hearts, for rain and sunny weather. We thank thee Lord for this our food, and we are here together. Amen"

In that order.

I know the first 2 are for the people in our family that are Roman Catholic which is most. The 2nd is for the Lutherans which are a few.

For the life of me I have no idea where the 3rd came from or who it's for. I can't think of anyone in our family who doesn't either identify as a Roman Catholic or a Lutheran.

I'm still getting into the habit of praying before meals. When I do remember, I say "Bless us, Lord, and these thy gifts which we receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen."

I usually pray 'Jesus, please bless this food to strengthen, nourish, and be good to my body. Thank you for the many blessings You have given me. In Your name I pray, Amen.'

My father was raised LCMS, and mother was raised Catholic. They joined what would become and ELCA congregation after they were married. I was raised saying "Come, Lord Jesus .... And that is what I use at home with my family today. We have a Wednesday youth night education program that includes a meal. When I lead that prayer its either a fun "church camp" prayer or a repeat after me format.

when my parents and I went to see my grandparents, we said the Lutheran prayer at mealtime!