From Anglo-Saxon times, August 1st has been called Lammas Day. ‘Lammas’ comes from ‘hlafmass’ - loaf mass, because at the Mass (or Eucharist) a loaf made from the first corn of harvest was offered in gratitude to God the Creator. As we say, ‘All things come from you, and of your own do we give you’. It was in fact a harvest thanksgiving. Nowadays we thank God when the harvest is complete; they hastened to thank him as soon as it had begun.

It was a special case of something they did at every Eucharist, when bread was brought to the altar, along with the wine and sometimes other gifts of food. It acknowledged that our life depends on our food, and our food depends on the natural growth which God has created. And bread - the basic food from basic crops - represented all food, and symbolised the whole of our lives.

This goes back to the Jewish practice of blessing God for the bread before meals, with the words ‘Blessed are you O Lord our God, King of all creation; you bring forth bread from the earth’. Jesus, as the head of the family of his disciples, regularly used this blessing before meals.

Then at their last meal together, he gave the bread a new meaning when he added, ‘This is my body’ - this is me, I am the spiritual food for your spiritual life. So when we now bring bread to the altar, it is to be a symbol not just of the earthly life God gives us, but of the eternal life God gives us in Jesus himself. That life in Christ surpasses our earthly life, but does not leave it behind; rather it enables us to live it as Jesus lived his earthly life, in love for God and for one another and for the world he has made.

So Lammas Day is not forgotten - it is there beneath the surface every time we ‘do this in remembrance of Me’ and thank God for all his blessings.