Lunchtime Religion

(Background info: I'm a daytime nanny for 3 kids right now.)

Lunchtime has brought in the issue of praying. The last summer we were together, we didn't pray at lunch because I knew they were Catholic and didn't know what to do. They were little. I didn't want to step on their parents' toes.

This time I decided, what the heck?

I announced on our first day together that I always thank God before I eat, so I though we should pray together before lunch. To my delight, they immediately knew what I was talking about, and were even eager to do this. The older two led us in the Catholic grace (framed by crossing self with the Holy Trinity and saying "Amen"): "Bless us Oh Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive, from thy bounty, and these our guests (probably added for my benefit) through Christ, Our Lord."

Of course, they immediately noticed that I had no idea how to recite the prayer, much less cross myself.
"You're not Catholic, are you?"
"No, I'm not."
I told them that I knew Jesus, and that's what is important to me.
"How do you pray?"
I have learned a couple prayers that sound a lot like theirs--so while we munched on sandwiches and I cut apples, I briefly recited a Lutheran prayer and another prayer before meals that I had learned as a child. The girls shared a couple prayers they had learned at friends' houses. (They knew "God is great; God is good. Now we thank him for this food.")

What did I usually say at lunch?
(I told them very briefly.)
What church do you go to?
(I casually didn't mention it.)

We've been using the Roman Catholic prayer at mealtimes all week, and I've been saying it with them. I'm perfectly happy to thank God using the Catholic prayer. I'm still working on learning it. I just found it online; which will help, since the kids mumble through some of the words they don't understand.

As a die-hard Protestant, I somehow have no theological difficulty with crossing myself. First of all, I believe in the Trinity. So, invoking the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is a perfectly right and proper thing to do. Each Person of the Trinity has separate office, necessary if I am to come before the Father in Heaven. Christ mediates and gives us access, the Spirit teaches us how to pray, and the Father receives our prayer. The Catholic cross is first and foremost a reminder that I rely every person of the Godhead as I pray.

As for the physical act of tracing a cross on oneself: The Catholics (at least officially) find no magic in the sign itself. It is a prayer and a proclamation. The sign of the cross is a physical act which announces to everyone in sight (and to yourself), "I have been redeemed by Christ's death on the cross." It is something you symbolically "wear". They argue that merely invoking the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is a prayer in itself.

In his shorter catechism, Martin Luther said that as part of morning and evening prayers, "you shall bless yourself with the holy cross and say:
'In the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.'"

That first year I babysat them (when I didn't pray with them at all), my conscience bothered me. After the fact I recognized that I was very fearful, and as a result, God did not get the glory. On the other hand, now I've claimed Christ and I'm still terrified. I hope these kids will see in me a "grown up" who firmly believes that Christ is the most important thing in life. What they'll actually see is the failure, hypocrisy and compromise that makes up who I am. I stand in a place of responsibility (and therefore judgment), but also in a place of mercy. This gives me confidence. I know God is greater than anything I put in his way. His plans are greater than mine, and his power overrides all my willing or unwilling opposition. Isn't he awesome?