Bread and Fishes


The gospel for this Sunday is the feeding of the five thousand in Matthew’s gospel. I’m not preaching at the main service this week – the priest I live with is doing that. I am giving the talk at our family service. While we were talking about the reading it brought to mind the old folk hymn, “Bread and Fishes,” which I first learned while on a Church Army Holiday Mission in the summer of 1980. As part of the mission we spent a month on the Gower Peninsula in Wales. During our time there we spent several evenings going around local pubs and entertaining the regulars and holidaymakers with folk songs – some religious – and including a brief message and invitation to our other activities. I haven’t sung it for years, and if anyone knows where I might find the sheet music I’d be very grateful – it would be good to sing it in church. Here are the Irish Rovers singing it.