Thought for the Day - Bread that Changed the World

Ilya Mashkov Still Life with Loaves of Bread, 1912

A Thought for the Day given during a lunchtime service of St Olave Hart Street given on Tuesday 6th May 2025 based on the text of John 6.30-35

Sermon - Bread that changed the world

Basket of Bread, Salvador Dali

A sermon preached at the Sung Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook on Thursday 26th August 2021 based on readings from Ephesians 6:10-20 and John 6:56-69.

Good News in a Nutshell

Our history is full of events that remind us that bread can change the world. The Great Fire of London, the anniversary of which falls next week, is one example. In the Gospel reading, Jesus again tells the disciples that he is the living bread that came down from heaven. He asks them if this sounds offensive. Many decide to turn away. Peter and the twelve apostles continue to follow Jesus, responding to Jesus’s question with a question of their own – where else can they go? An inspiring response! But would we answer Jesus so confidently? The gospel reading affirms and reassures all those who have the confidence to question. The answer to every question we can ever ask is in the living bread that we share at the Eucharist. A reminder that it’s not just in history that bread can change the world – but in the present too.

Start:Stop-The Bread of Life

Eucharistic Still Life, Salvador Dalí, 1952

Hello and welcome, my name is Phillip Dawson. Like many churches, we have begun to consider the changes we need to make to enable us to celebrate the Eucharist safely when public worship resumes here. For our Start:Stop reflection this week, I thought it seemed a good time to think about how our lives are changed by receiving the Eucharist?

Our reading is from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John.

How am I transformed by the Eucharist?

Jacques Iselin - The Elements of Holy Communion (Methodist Modern Art Collection)

This was the central question posed by Canon James Milne, Precentor of St Paul’s Cathedral, at a study day organised by the St Paul’s Learning team on Saturday 21st September. In “The Eucharist in Six Objects” we were taken on a sensory tour using objects from the Cathedral collection, during which we were challenged to consider how we respond to the sacrament of the Eucharist - which is where, Canon James explained, the past, present and future collide.