Prayer of Thanksgiving

 Below is a prayer from the ancient Didache (Διδαχή) or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, which is a brief anonymous early Christian treatise, dated by most modern scholars to the first century. In the 10th chapter there is an edifying prayer offered in thanks to God. 

 

Prayer of Thanksgiving (Didache, 10.1–6)


10
1 When you have had your fill, give thanks this way:
2 “We thank you, holy Father,
For your holy name,
which you made dwell in our hearts,
And for the knowledge and faith and immortality,
which you made known to us
through Jesus your servant.
To you be glory forever.
3 You, almighty Lord, created all things for the
sake of your name,
and you gave food and drink to human
beings for enjoyment,
so that they would thank you;
But you graced us with spiritual food and
drink and eternal life
through <Jesus> your servant.
4 *For all things, we thank you, Lord, because
you are powerful.
To you be glory forever.
5 Be mindful, Lord, of your church,
to preserve it from all evil
and to perfect it in your love.
And < … > gather it from the four winds,
into the kingdom which you have prepared
for it.
For power and glory are yours forever.
6 May grace come, and may this world pass by.
Hosanna to the God of David!
If anyone is holy, let him come.
If anyone is not, let him repent.
Maranatha! Amen.”


Kurt Niederwimmer and Harold W. Attridge, The Didache: A Commentary, Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998), 155.