Blessing of the Table
A prayer added to the Breviary, used in religious houses before and after lunch and dinner. It begins with the superior’s greeting: «Benedicite!» to which the community replies: «Benedicite!»; then follows the Gloria, the verse «Oculi omnium» (Ps 144:15) at lunch, «Edent pauperes» (ibid. 21:27) at dinner, sometimes changed on certain principal feasts; then the Kyrie, Pater noster, and a short prayer that ends with the blessing of the food. To give thanks, after lunch the verse «Confluentur» (Ps 144:10) with the Gloria is recited, after dinner «Memoriam» (ibid. 110:4.5a); a short prayer of thanksgiving is followed by the psalm «Miserere» (50) or «Laudate» (116), then the Kyrie, Pater noster, the versicles from the litany «Dispersit» (Ps 11:9), especially «Benedicam» taken from the ancient Communion Psalm (33:1-3), and «Sit nomen» (Ps 112:2); it concludes with prayers for benefactors and the dead and with the Pater noster.
Following the example of the Lord (Mt 14:19) and of the Apostles (Acts 27:35; 1 Tim 4:3-5), the «Benedicite»—so called from the opening word of the pre-meal prayer—was a very ancient and widespread Christian usage, noted by Clement of Alexandria (Paedag., II, 4) and Tertullian (De cor. mil., 3; Apol., 39, 16, 19; De orat., 25). The most ancient texts are the thanksgiving prayers of the Didachē (ch. 9, 10) in relation to the Jewish Sabbath evening prayers, but their content is Christian. Prayers used by virgins in convents are found in Pseudo-Athanasius, De virginitate, 12-14 (PG 28, 265, 268), Const. Ap., VII, 49; St John Chrysostom also refers to them in Hom. 55 in Mt. (PG 58, 545). For the return, the most ancient form of the «Benedicite» is contained in Cod. Sangall. 349, f. 104 sqq. (ed. Silva-Tarouca, pp. 213-14); it already contains the present-day formulas «Oculi» and «Edent pauperes». At each course, the superior pronounces a blessing; first, at the superior’s sign, the reader interrupts the reading and all say «Deo gratias». At the blessing all reply «Amen», and the reader continues. Formulas of this prayer and of the blessings are found in the Sacramentaries (Gelasian, Gregorian, in the Fulda Sacramentary, 10th cent., 2812, 2828 and Gallican, e.g., Bobbio, ed. Lowe, 1920, nn. 561-62). The monastic Consuetudines of Cluny (PL 149, 711-12) and of Hirschau (PL 150, 995-96) contain the customary formulas.