Robert Farrar Capon wrote this prayer, in his book "The Supper of the Lamb”
In a world where people often don't understand metaphors and images, it feels sad to have to say this: this is not a dietary recommendation.
- It is an expression of the abundance, not the blandness that we are offered in God.
- It is an expression of the lavishness, not the cheapness of our God.
O Lord, refresh our sensibilities.
Give us this day our daily taste.
Restore to us soups that spoons will not
sink in,
and sauces which are never the same twice.
Raise up among us stews
with more gravy than we have bread to blot
it with,
and casseroles that put starch and
substance
in our limp modernity.
Take away our fear of fat
and make us glad of the oil which ran upon
Aaron’s beard.
Give us pasta with a hundred fillings,
and rice in a thousand variations.
Above all, give us grace to live as true
men –
to fast till we come to a refreshed sense
of what we have
and then to dine gratefully on all that
comes to hand.
Drive far from us, O Most Bountiful,
all creatures of air and darkness;
cast out the demons that possess us;
deliver us from the fear of calories
and the bondage of nutrition;
and set us free once more in our own land,
where we shall serve Thee as Thou hast
blessed us –
with the dew of heaven,
the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of corn and wine.
Amen.
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