Lammas Blessings & the Russian Curse

 

Let us give thanks for this grain of the new harvest to be milled to make choice flour which will be baked into the Lammas loaf.

 Lord of the harvest, bless the grain now in our hand 

bless the miller in their work 

bless the baker in their task bless the bread that will be baked

 bless the people to be fed 

bless the world you love so much and all in the name of Jesus our Lord. 

All :Amen.

Lammas Day Blessing -- Southwark Cathedral

This is Lammas Day, 2023, which you are all celebrating. no doubt. Did I hear a chorus of "huh"s? I wrote about Lammas or Mass Loaf Day last year because it coincided with an agreement between the invading Russians and Ukraine to leave ports open for wheat shipments to various parts of the world where the grain is vital to survival. Here I quote myself, 12 months on: 

Lammas Day is a derivation of Loaf Mass Day, which, as the name suggests, celebrates the first of the grain harvest and the making of bread, which is sometimes referrred to as the Staff of Life. Without bread in its many wonderful forms communities would starve and it couldn't be taken for granted. Not surprising then that it took on a sacred quality. Of course, Jesus referred to himself as the Bread of Life (John 6) and one of our Christian sacraments, the eucharist or holy communion, involves a form of bread and includes that phrase. 

You may have heard last week that as the war drags on into its second year Russia did not renew that agreement to allow shipments. There have been Russian attacks on the port city of Odesa and threats that they will target ships as well, although NATO has responded with a warning that these vessels will be protected. 

Isn't it the height of human folly to weaponize the Staff of Life? Is the Russian Orthodox church still cheer-leading for Putin's evil regime? This is not only a tragedy for Ukraine, which is sometimes described as the "breadbasket of the world", but for all the nations which depend upon Ukrainian wheat for sustenance. 

https://lionlamb-bowmanville.blogspot.com/2022/08/lammas-day-ukraines-harvest.html