Grace
 

I thought I'd start a new thread. We've provided our creeds, our traditions, and interesting trivia.

What's your GLO's grace before meals?

The Alpha Gamma Delta grace is:

For meat and drink we thank the Lord
Who stand round this fraternal board.
Grant that our sisters everywhere
In thy full grace and bounty share.

Sung to the tune of the Doxology.

AGD Alum

ASA's Grace Before Meat
 

For thy many blessings
Health and strength and food
Sisterhood and friendship
Take our gratitude
May love's spirit guide us
Make each duty plain
Help us to the highest
Seek, aspire, attain

Don't sing it unless you can drop an octave to bass territory on "food." :D

Oh Lord, thy blessings now shed down
Upon dear Delta Omicron
May all our ties and friendships be
Strengthened and honoured Lord by Thee.

This is generally known as our Prayer, and used for grace a lot of other more serious occasions.

sigma kappa's grace is
Oh though who gives us every gift,
To thee our grateful praise we lift,
Teach us to do thy will today
and find in thee one heart, one way
Amen
Sung to doxology

Yes, that grace is a national tradition and should be sung before all meals at Zeta houses, Zeta Days, Convention, etc.

Father in heav'n, we pray,
Bless Thee our love,
Keep our Tri Delt ideals
Pure as Thee above;
Bless Thee our daily bread,
Bless our lives through,
Grateful we come, O Lord
Grateful to you.

Rub-a-dub-dub,
Thanks for the grub,
A-A-A-A-A-A-MEN!

I think that's so nice that some organizations have a Grace! As far as I know, Delta Zeta doesn't have one. Sisters, am I incorrect?

Alpha Delta Pi
 

Hear us sing with one accord,
Praises for Thy gifts O Lord--
For Thy gift of daily bread,
For the paths in which we're lead.
From Thy throne of love on high--
List to Alpha Delta Pi. Amen.

For Health, For Food
For Friendships tried and true
We thank thee lord
that we may
through bonds of wine and blue
spread thy great love abroad.

I know it when it's time to say it but I can't remember exact wording currently...lol :)

That sounds really weird. I'm glad we don't do that. No offence but it would freak me out to see a bunch of people singing a prayer in the dining hall.

AOII Grace
 

Grant us now thy grace we pray,
Sisters gathered here today,
Be our hearts fraternal love,
kindled still by thine above.

Help us to be fair within,
Free from every secret sin,
Keep our motto ever nigh,
Make us worthy A-O-Pi.

(It's cool when it's sung in a harmony...we did that in my chapter for a few years)

While not necessarily just a prayer before meals, ATO Grace is also sung at other times as well:

Lord of mankind, Master divine
Keep us pure in heart and mind
So we may know thee
Thy presence show
Guard us and guide us
In ATO

Jason

No offense taken. To someone not accustomed to singing grace before dinner, it would seem a bit strange.

To those reading these boards who share the ideas expressed by our dear friend Optimist Prime, please keep in mind that many of our organizations were founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and that during the time our songs and rituals were written (in the late 1800's to early 20th Century), religion was a large part of the lives of our founders. Today, we do not discriminate among our members on the basis of religion nor impose these beliefs upon them, but we do honor our founders and the history and tradition upon which our ritual and music has been derrived.

Optimist Prime, thank you for your post and for sharing your feelings. There are many out there who feel the same.

-- From a Jewish Member of a Historically "Christian" Sorority :)

Sung every night before dinner at the house:

Gracious Lord we ask thy blessing
On thy bounty which we share.
May Delta Gamma live forever
'Neath thy guidance and thy care.

(I think those are the correct words. It's been a while for me!)

not all of them - sorry to pick a nit.

Billy, we only sing the Grace at formal occasions like installations and convention. As it's called the Grace Before Meat, we would be out of luck singing it in the caf since there was often nothing resembling meat there. LOL.

If you'll re-read adpiucf's post, she said "many" not "all" so there was no nit to pick! :D

This is Kappa's blessing:

Father, we are thankful,
May we ever be,
Mindful of Thy blessings,
We of K.K.G.

So what's ASA's Grace Before Strange Greyish Matter? ;)

Would you not sing it if you weren't eating meat? (fish, pasta...)

AEPhi doesn't have a grace... :(

I honestly don't think we do... But I could be wrong, (my chapter doesn't have a house, so we don't have formal dinners to sing at) maybe my sisters could help me out with this one...

Alpha Xi Delta's is yet another doxology tune:

Be present at our table, Lord.
Be here and everywhere adored.
These mercies bless and grant that we
May feast in paradise with Thee.

God bless our dear Fraternity.
May we e'er united be.
May our quill reign eternally.
Alpha Xi Delta praises Thee. Amen.

Actully Delta Zeta does have a Grace at meals! I am the chaplain and had to say it at our chapter installation. It is
Father we lift our voice in thanks to thee; For these Thy gifts of loving Charity.
Bless to thy use and strenghten as thou would these Delta Zeta bonds of sisterhood.

I got to say it in front of our National President!

Oh let thy blessing, Father dear
Rest on each friend and sister here
Our order bless, help us we pray
True lives to live from day to day
Amen

I would like to state my favorite thing about our blessing - it's probably one of our easiest songs to sing, even my chapter (who couldn't carry a tune to save our charter) sounds beautiful when this is sung. :)

Technically, these are the words for when non-Gamma Phi's are present. The line is "Rest on each sister gathered here" when it's only Gamma Phi's but I'm not sure anyone knows that anymore.....................

Sure is a national thing!! I LOVE when we sing it too. :) And not just because I get to eat after...I really do like it!

My chapter does. See, we do something right! ;)

TriSigma Grace
 

I've only heard the grace at our national gatherings and such, I don't remember if we sang it at the Alumnae/College Advisory Committee meeting, though. :) I'm sure there are some chapters who use it more often, though. I think it's really pretty.

For thy love and for thy care,
For the food thou didst prepare,
For thy goodness everywhere,
Father in heav'n we thank thee.
Amen.

~ ShyViolet

I know, but I thought that the thread was referring to what we sing at mealtime. I also wasn't sure if I should post the version that we sing during ritual-type events. At chapter-only functions and rituals, we sing the "each sister" verse, but at mealtimes we sing the friend & sister verse because there are often guests or nonmembers (like the housemother or kitchen staff) present.

What I really like about the Kappa grace is hearing other chapters do it - when I was at UCF Initation/Installation, we sang it and found out that my chapter does it a LOT faster than everyone else. While I'm not a very religious person, I always liked singing grace with my chapter - I don't know why - I guess just the idea of thanking someone (even tho I'm not clear on who or what that is..?) for the blessings in my life. We sing ours every night before dinner - we line up outside of the dining room and sing it all together.

Close. Just drop out the "may".

We always say grace before lunch and supper, and we sing it before formal dinners. I've heard through our alums that our chapter, IN Gamma, is one of the few Pi Phi chapters to say grace regularly. Is this the same way with other orgs? Do you find that every chapter says grace (for those that have one) or do only certain chapters use the grace?

In my experience, a fraternity's or sorority's grace would be used for formal dinners, meals in a house or other occasions where there is some privacy. (In the History Channel's "Frat Boys," the Phi Delt chapter was shown reciting what appeared to be a fraternity grace before a meal in the chapter house dining room.) It would be unusual, in my experience, to sing it in a crowded dining hall.

We don't have an "official" (as in officially adopted for all time), grace, but all of our songbooks have contained a prayer entitled "Sinfonian Grace" -- there have been three or four prayers with this name over the years. The one with which I am most familiar (although I am not sure that it is the grace in the current songbook) is:

Lord of love and law and light,
God who gave us sound and sight,
Hear our hearts in harmony
Singing grateful thanks to Thee.
Bless the bread upon the board,
Bless our brotherhood, O Lord;
Bless Sinfonia's noble aim,
As in song we bless Thy Name. Amen.

I think we sing it fairly regularly - we don't have meals together at the house so we don't sing it then, but we do at all appopriate events.

Very interesting. Our chapter did a different one:

Lord now the board of Delta G is spread
With meat and drink as by His grace we're led.
We humbly thank thee for this gift of food
And all the pleasures of our sisterhood.

I'm a little iffy on that second line but it's something like that.

At the 1st gathering of our local Panhellenic group, Cele asked if anyone would sing their sorority's grace. Since an AGD was brave enough to volunteer, I "helped" ;)

Since my chapter doesn't have a house, Grace is only sang
about 2-3 times a year. Hopefully the song is on the IHQ tape because we should practice! ;)

Yup, thats it!!

I can't remember it exactly, but this is a close approximation of the Delt blessing:

"Father, we bow our heads,
Thankful for you and for our daily bread,
Help us discover all things that are good,
Out of our Delta Brotherhood."

The last line might be "As part of our Delta Brotherhood." It's been a while.

Sigma Chi
 

Sigma Chi grace

Our father
We thank thee
for thy many blessings
keep us from harm
may the white cross guide us
and teach us to be true
to each other
ourselves and thee
amen

Re: AOII Grace
 

I LOVE OUR GRACE! At my chapter, Nu Beta, we sing it in a shorter form for non-sit down meals.

Grant us now thy grace we pray,
Sisters gathered here today,
Keep our motto every nigh,
Make us worthy A-O-Pi.

I've attended two conventions (NYC and Norfolk), and it is amazing when there are so many AOIIs singing the grace. I get chill bumps!

I am an AOII too, and I too love our grace. At my chapter we sang it every sit down meal we had together (usually dinner - but sometimes lunches when we had family weekends or homecoming lunches, etc...). We were lucky enough to have a chatper house so we had dinner together often.

We sang the shortened version too, and we didn't know there was the 2 verse version till we were at convention in Arizona - it was so funny we all looked so lost as the others sang the real version....

but you're right it does sound great!

tasha

here's SAE's as best I can remember it
 

Ye ancient Father of our clan
we bow our hearts to thee
We offer thanks for bread and meat
and for our SAE
Bless brothers all we humbly pray
tho' far on land and sea
And keep us true to high ideals
we ask for SAE