The Common Table Prayer is arguably the best known mealtime prayer

Prayer

Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...

 among North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n Lutherans. Several other variations also exist.

History

The Common Table Prayer was first published in the year 1753 in a Moravian hymnal

Hymnal

Hymnal or hymnary or hymnbook is a collection of hymns, i.e. religious songs, usually in the form of a book. The earliest hand-written hymnals are known since Middle Ages in the context of European Christianity...

, Etwas vom Liede Mosis, des Knechts Gottes, und dem Liede des Lammes, das ist: Alt- und neuer Brüder-Gesang. The title was Tisch-Gebetgen, or Table Prayer. There are possibilities that the prayer is from an older text with Lutheran origins. In the Moravian hymnal the prayer is not placed in the "Old Moravian Hymns" chapter or in the eighteenth-century Moravian hymns" chapter. Instead it is placed in the chapter titled "evangelical hymns from the seventeenth century". Dietrich Meyer put as author of the prayer "author unknown". In the Evangelisch-Lutherisher Gebets-Schatz or Evangelical-Lutheran Prayer Treasures, the prayer is attributed to Martin Luther

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

, but this is highly speculated.

Text and Variations

Original German:

Komm, Herr Jesu; sei du unser Gast;

und segne, was du uns bescheret hast.

English:

Come, Lord Jesus, be our Guest;

And bless what you have bestowed.

or alternatively, a Moravian translation,

Come, Lord, Jesus, our Guest to be

And bless these gifts bestowed by Thee.

There are several variations common today for the second line. In English there are other second lines such as "Let these gifts to us be blessed," "Let Thy gifts to us be blessed," "Let these Thy gifts to us be blessed," "Let these foods to us be blessed," "And let this food by Thee be blessed, "let these gifts to us be blessed and may our souls by thee be fed ever on the living bread," and "and bless what you have bestowed to us out of mercy". Also in German there are several other versions such as "und segne, was du uns bescheret hast," and "und segne, was du uns aus Gnaden bescheret hast". A second "verse" may also be added: "Blessed be God who is our bread; may all the world be clothed and fed." Moravians often add "Bless our loved ones everywhere and keep them in Thy loving care."

Sometimes the verse of Psalm 136:1 is added at the end. "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good: For His mercy endureth forever."

External links

• LCMS-Who wrote the common table prayer and where did it come from?
• WELS-Prayer matters, the Common Table Prayer