Setting the table for prayer

By Michelle Martin
Staff Writer

The symbolism of breaking bread—sitting down and eating together—figures prominently in the Bible.

Now the archdiocese’s Family Ministries Office hopes to make eating together a more meaningful experience for families.

The office is selling placemats with the Grace Before Meals, two pre-meal prayers that can be sung and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit on the front, and several other prayers, plus a space for a child to write his own prayer, on the back.

Parents may recognize some of the prayers they learned as children on the back of the mats. The Hail Mary and Our Father are there, and so are the Memorare and Come, Holy Spirit.

“It’s to encourage people to sit down and pray together as a family,” said Aileen Pelrine, associate director of the Family Ministries Office. “It’s best for kids to do it with Mom and Dad.”

Lent, with its emphasis on prayer, is a good time to start using the placemats at family meals, Pelrine said. In addition to the prayers, the mats have questions intended to spark thoughtful dinner-table discussions.

The laminated 11-by-17-inch placemats also can be a tool for the evangelization of families, something not lost on Citas Gutierrez of Transfiguration of Our Lord Parish in Chicago.

“If the children could evangelize the older people, that would be the way to do it,” said Gutierrez, who has helped the new Creation Prayer Group sell the placemats as a fund raiser for the parish. “I encourage the families to let the children lead the prayers.”

The New Creation prayer group at Transfiguration, led by Blanche Garcia, has sold 1,000 placemats already, and has ordered 500 more, Gutierrez said. It’s easy for families to get several, because the parish is asking for a $2 donation for each.

Gutierrez said she knew it would be easy to persuade people to take the placemats as soon as the pastor, Father John Rudnik, showed them to her.

“We’re not really selling the placemats,” Gutierrez said. “We’re selling the prayers—or encouraging people to use the prayers.”

The parish is one of several to make a dent in the archdiocese’s last order for 10,000 placemats.

The mats were produced by Illinois Catholic Family Ministries, an umbrella organization of the family ministry offices of the dioceses in Illinois.

Families also can buy the mats directly from the archdiocese, Pelrine said, at a cost of $2 each plus shipping and handling. “I’ve bought them for my whole family,” she said.

Parishes and schools who want to sell them as a fund raiser can get a bulk discount: $1.50 each for 100-499, and $1 each for 500 or more.

For more information, call the Family Ministries Office at (312) 751-8351.

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