A Prayer for Alban Elfed

“We should pray before sunrise and after sunset, pray prayers that have for their purposes no personal advantage, but are as native as are the vesper cries of pairing partridges, and as full of natural gratitude as is the heart of a lover.”
​                                    — LLEWELYN POWYS, Earth Memories 

​Give us O God, of the morning meal.
Benefit to the body, the frame of the soul;
Give us, O God, of the seventh bread,
Enough for our need at evening close.

Give us, O God, of the honey-sweet foaming milk,
The sap and milk of the fragrant farms,
And give, O God, along with Thy sheep,
Rest in the shade of Thy covenant rock.

Give us this night of the corn that shall last,
Give us this night of the drink that shall hurt not;
Give us this night, anear to the heavens,
The chalice of Mary mild, the tender.

Be with us by day, be with us by night,
Be with us by light and by dark,
In our lying down and in our rising up,
In speech, in walk, in prayer.

("The Meal" - Carmina Gadelica, Vol. III)