“You say grace before meals.
All right.
But I say grace before the play and the opera,
And grace before the concert and the pantomime,
And grace before I open a book,
And grace before sketching, painting,
Swimming fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing;
And grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”
-G. K. Chesterton
3 comments:
Interesting quote...I don't know if I quite grasp the meaning, Chesterton could be a bit cryptic sometimes. Does he mean he needs grace at all times? If so, I would highly agree with him.
My take on it is that saying grace at meal times is not enough. Many families have the tradition to say a prayer before a family meal. This is a fine tradition, but in how many families do prayers stop there? I think Chesterson is saying that he prays for grace and guidance before EVERY activity.
I personally don't pray before a meal. It's not that I don't find some worth in that tradition, it just doesn't happen to be my tradition. I say major prayers as I go to sleep and after I have awaken for the day. Other prayers are scattered throughout the day as well, sometimes they are as simple as "thank you" when I make it home safely.
I would definitely agree with you. I don't think it's when or where you pray, it's the realizing that prayer eventually in the Christian walk becomes like breathing. It's not something you do specifically at meals, or before you go to bed, or when you wake up, or any rituallistic thing. It's the constant giving of praise to God, throughout the day. It doesn't mean that you make the effort for all of the twelve hours we're awake in the day to pray every minute. It means that it becomes natural to do, and so it happens sometimes almost sub-conciously. It becomes a natural habit, almost.
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