At a recent Mass with the Connecticut – North East Area our Chaplain, Fr. Joseph MacNeill, blessed vegetable and flower seeds for the coming growing season.

You may ask why we invoked God’s blessing upon the seeds. We bless seeds for several reasons: we give God glory and recognize Him as the creator and sustainer of all things (the purpose of the Order of Malta), we look forward to a harvest of food for our sustenance, and we recognize there is connection with what we hear in the parable of the sower. Ultimately it is God’s Providence that captures our attention.

In the Lord’s Prayer we ask for the daily bread. We are all beggars on a fundamental level. We have to ask, we extend our hand in supplication. The action and necessity of eating is grounded in our Church’s agricultural patrimony up to today. Our Order continues to support agriculture around the world and we do the same here in Connecticut where we support two gardens. The majority of these seeds will be planted for feeding the needy and the homeless.

Perhaps the best reason to bless seeds is because it is a good, holy and fun thing to do. May the harvest “reach the pantries without hindrance.”