Graces: Prayers and Poems for Everyday Meals and Special Occasions

by June Cotner

Overview

Saying grace at mealtimes is a timehonored tradition for many families and a newfound source of spiritual connection for others. Whether you are a master at giving the blessing or fairly new at this sacred art, Graces will bring inspiration to your meals and special gatherings.

Seeing the need for such inspiration at her family's table, June Cotner compiled a notebook of poems, prayers, and songs that she solicited from friends, poets, family members, and ministers. She has turned her family's well-worn notebook into this elegantly packaged edition, which will complement your finest table setting.

Arranged by thirteen themes, this beautiful giftbook contains 133 poems, prayers, songs, invocations, and salutations that span the centuries and draw from many traditions. Includes work by Robert Browning, Walt Whitman, Starhawk, Chief Seattle, Helen Keller, Kahlil Gibran, Saint Francis of Assisi and Albert Schweitzer. From prayers at mealtime and special holiday graces to a Gaelic Blessing, or an ancient Chinese Prayer, Graces offers fitting words for every occasion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781573245784
Publisher:	Red Wheel/Weiser
Publication date:	11/01/2012
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 5.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

June Cotner is the author or editor of 28 books, including the best-selling

Graces, Bedside Prayers, and Dog Blessings. Her books altogether have sold over one million copies.

June's latest love and avocation is giving presentations on "Adopting Prisoner-Trained Shelter Dogs." In 2011 she adopted Indy, a chocolate Labrador/Doberman mix, from the Freedom Tails program at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen, WA. June works with Indy daily to build on the wonderful obedience skills he mastered in the program. She and Indy have appeared on the television shows AM Northwest and New Day Northwest.

A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, June is the mother of two grown children and lives in Poulsbo, WA, with her husband. Her hobbies include yoga, hiking, and playing with her two grandchildren. For more information, please visit June's website at junecotner.com.

Read an Excerpt

Morning Grace

We thank Thee God
as we watch
the distant hills
suddenly emerge
above the filmy, white mist
and gently touch heaven —
awakening the sun
for another day.

Joan Stephen

Table of Contents

GRACES

• 1. For Any Gathering
• 2. Seasonal Graces
• 3. For Holidays
• 4. For Family Gatherings
• 5. Native American Graces
• 6. Traditional Graces
• 7. For Children
• 8. For the Earth
• 9. Musical Graces
• 10. Short Graces
• 11. From Around the World
• 12. For Peace and Justice
• 13. For Contemplation

Editorial Reviews

GRACES: PRAYERS AND POEMS FOR EVERYDAY MEALS AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS (HarperSanFrancisco 1994) began as a notebook in which June Cotner collected favorite prayers and reflections from friends and family. Cotner has arranged her 133 offerings by theme, drawing from many cultural traditions and including such originals as a grace for dieting and a springtime prayer of thanks for lilacs.

New Age Journal

A new book from HarperSanFrancisco could be quite useful if you find yourself at a loss for words when everyone is looking to you for inspiration. Do what most of us do: Take someone else's words and use them. "Graces, Prayers and Poems for Everyday Meals and Special Occasions" is a compilation of prayers and poems for many of life's celebrations and some of the everyday, as well.

Included are 13 sections for everything from prayers at meals to thoughts for times of contemplation and holidays, times for children and how to remember the Earth. There also are prayers from around the world, short graces and even prayers for peace and justice.

There are some standards included, but also whimsey and some that simply touch the heart.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Saying grace at mealtimes is a time-honored tradition for many families . and a newfound source of spiritual connection for others. Whether you are a master at giving the blessing or fairly new at this sacred art, Graces will bring inspiration to your meals and special gatherings.

Seeing the need for such inspiration at her family's table, June Cotner-a best-selling author The Home Design Handbook-compiled a notebook of poems, prayers and songs that she solicited from friends, strangers, family members and ministers. She has turned her family's well-worn notebook into this elegantly packaged edition, which can take a rightful place on the table complementing the finest of table settings.

Arranged by 13 themes, the book contains poems, prayers, songs, invocations and salutations by figures as diverse as Leunig and Browning, Emerson and Starhawk, Kahlil Gibran and Schweitzer. Whether the call is for a Sanskrit salutation to the dawn, a Gaelic blessing or an ancient Chinese prayer, Graces offers fitting words for every occasion.

Cotner drew from her collection of 133 original, traditional and multicultural blessings in compiling the book. Realizing that one of the rewards of family dinner-or group dinners-is the fellowship, these blessings offer an opportunity to share wisdom and insight with family and friends before, during or after meals or special gatherings.

Washington Diocese