Hail to thee, O Anna, sacred food! Thou art the breath of life itself. Without thee, no creature can endure. The strongest man becomes weak; the bravest warrior falleth. But he who hath eaten is made whole.

Thou art the gift of Heaven and Earth together. The sun doth ripen thee in the fields; the rain doth nourish thee; the wind doth dry thy grain. Many hands labor to bring thee forth — the ploughman and the sower, the reaper and the thresher. And all their toil is hallowed, for they do the work of the gods.

When we take thee into our bodies, we take in the very essence of creation. The strength of the earth becometh our strength. The warmth of the sun becometh our warmth. We are no longer separate from the world; we are woven into its fabric. To eat is to become one with the universe itself.

Yet thou art humble, O Anna. Thou speakest not loudly. Thou dost not demand attention or reverence. Thou simply givest thyself, day after day, without complaint, without pride. And in this humility lies thy true greatness. For what is greater than to sustain life? What is more noble than to nourish?

Therefore we honor thee with praise and gratitude. We do not take thee for granted, as do the thoughtless and the ungodly. We see in thee the hand of the divine. We recognize thy sacred nature. And so before we eat, we pause; we give thanks; we acknowledge the mystery and the mercy by which we are sustained.

O Anna, thou blessed gift! Continue to flow forth from the earth. Continue to nourish all creatures. And teach us the lesson of sustenance — that we too may give of ourselves freely, that we too may nourish the world with our own labor and love.