David Russell Mosley

Ordinary Time
Lammas
The Edge of Elfland
Hudson, New Hampshire

Dear Readers,

Somehow, I missed the fact that today is Lammas, despite just having done a post that included the below video about it! Fortunately, the pagans here at Patheos were able to remind me. So, I thought I would re-share Alison Milbank’s excellent video explaining to you the Christian festival of Lammas or Loaf Mass, a celebration of the first loaf of bread made for the year with the new grain. Lammas is a recognition that our food comes from the gift of God and human labor. In fact, it is exceptionally beautiful for it is the coming together of the divine and the human. Creation is God’s, and that of course includes us, but this means that the wheat that goes into bread is a gift to us from God and we take that gift along with the gifts of water, yeast (wild or cultivated), and salt and combine them together to make bread. God’s gift to us and our own creativity, itself a gift, come together to create bread, the food with which we are commonly fed, the element that serves as the body of our Lord in the Eucharist. Yes, Lammas is a profoundly Christian holiday one that takes us from the gift of creation to the fields, to our dinner tables, to the Altar which also the Lord’s Table, to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

Happy Lammas.

Sincerely,
David