An hour before the meal let the weekly servers each receive a drink and some bread over and above the appointed allowance, in order that at the meal time they may serve their brethren without murmuring and without excessive fatigue. On solemn days, however, let them wait until after Mass.Immediately after the Morning Office on Sunday, the incoming and outgoing servers shall prostrate themselves before all the brethren in the oratory and ask their prayers. Let the server who is ending his week say this verse:"Blessed are You, O Lord God, who have helped me and consoled me." When this has been said three times and the outgoing server has received his blessing,then let the incoming server follow and say, "Incline unto my aid, O God; O Lord, make haste to help me."Let this also be repeated three times by all, and having received his blessing let him enter his service.

There is always sacramental potential. In the simplest act and the most ordinary experience, there is the possibility of an opening to God.

Benedict prescribes a modest ritual to encourage the servers of food to recognize how their work can connect them to God.

Augustine of Hippo, writing a century before Benedict, explained the sacramental as a "visible sign of an invisible reality."