Grace After Meals

"We give Thee thanks, almighty God" — Agimus tibi gratias — is the traditional Catholic grace after meals, the companion to the blessing said before. Where the first grace asks God to bless the food, this one turns, the meal finished, to thank Him for all His benefits — not for the food alone, but for "all Thy benefits," the whole stream of gifts by which He sustains His creatures. It is the natural close of a Christian meal: to rise from the table with gratitude on the lips.

The prayer answers a plain command of Scripture. "In all things give thanks," wrote St. Paul, "for this is the will of God" (1 Thessalonians 5:18); and again, "giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:20). The Christian who thanks God after eating is simply obeying the Apostle, and imitating Our Lord, who "gave thanks" over bread and cup.

The traditional grace adds a second movement of great tenderness: "May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace." This comes from monastic custom, where the community, having been fed at the table of God's providence, would not rise without a thought for their departed brethren and benefactors — remembering that the same charity which feeds the living owes prayer to the dead.

So the two graces together frame the meal in the whole shape of Christian life: we ask God's blessing before, we thank Him after, and in thanking Him we remember the dead who have gone before us. A few seconds of prayer transform an ordinary act of eating into an act of religion — gratitude to the Giver of every good gift.