Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank thee for this place in which we dwell,
for the love that unites us,
for the peace accorded us this day,
for the health, the work, the food,
for the bright skies that make our lives delight,
and for our friends in all parts of the earth.

Give us courage, gaiety, and the quiet mind.
Spare to us our friends,
soften to us our enemies.
Bless us, if it may be,
in all our innocent endeavours.
If it may not, give us the strength
to encounter that which is to come.
May we be brave in peril,
constant in tribulation,
temperate in wrath,
and in all changes of fortune,
loyal and loving to one another.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer

Image: ‘A Family at Table’ by Georg Melchior Kraus (c1770-1774)