In our final week of Harvest Thanksgiving, we thank the Lord for this year’s harvest. We give thanks for all who take care of providing food for us.
We pray for those who go hungry every day. May we be generous and share with those in need. Amen.
In the second week of our Harvest Festival ‘Thanksgiving for the Fruits of the Earth’, we are celebrating a Grass Plant called Oats. This is what porridge is made of!
If you eat porridge for breakfast, you are eating oats. Porridge is a great breakfast because it releases energy slowly. It keeps people warm for a long time and so helps to protect them from getting colds and sniffles.
No wonder oats were eaten by the armies of Roman Legions, Normans, and Vikings and by our Irish
ancestors for years. We thank God for this cheap and nutritious food
In days gone by, poor people often ate porridge, or a watery version called gruel, three times a day, in order to survive. Nowadays we have many delicious treats and snacks we make from oats including flapjacks, granola bars, fruit crumbles, and overnight oats for a healthy breakfast!
We thank God for giving us such a versatile food that can be eaten in so many different ways.
To show thanks for the good harvest that God has sent us this year, we invite you to share what He has provided with those who are in need. This week and especially next Sunday, the 27th October, we are making a collection of non-perishable food and other items to be distributed to The Women’s Refuge in Bray and to the Five Loaves. Your generosity and support is much appreciated.
As we begin our Harvest Festival, we concentrate on thanking God for answering our petitions for all our needs.
This is the first of three weekends where we as a faith community pray in ‘Thanksgiving for the Fruits of the Earth’.
Bread is the staple diet of many in this world. We start this week in each church with a small display of wheat as it grows in our field, and the bread we eat.
As you look at a sheaf of wheat, see how each grain is protected by an outer sheath, the husk to protect it from the bad weather. How marvelous is the mind of God who designed this grass plant which people have cultivated and fed on for the past ten thousand years. We are thankful to you Lord.
There is also a bowl of grain in the display – seed for next year’s planting or grain sent to the mill to be ground into flour used by bakers to make beautiful loaves of bread and cakes. We are thankful for the variety of food that can be made using wheat.
We remember those who are less fortunate than ourselves, those who are starving in this world. We are thankful for the many people who work with wheat and help us receive our daily bread. Bless them in their work dear Lord. We thank you, O Lord, for the wheat and all who help us benefit from the wheat harvest.
Amen.
