Do religious people “worship” bread in the US?

39 comments

1. As a Catholic, I can tell you we throw out more bread than I’m happy to admit. Never have I been taught to worship bread.

2. My Italian (literally Italian, not like 8th generation half italian) relatives get all Jesus-y if they see someone wasting or throwing away food.

3. Only the bread used in communion. Not just your standard loaf.

4. I think you are confusing a Eucharist and regular bread in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

   The bread used in the Eucharist becomes the body of Christ. Catholics and Orthodox believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It is still bread but it’s essence becomes the flesh of Christ. It is no longer mere bread but the Holy body of God.

   If you want to read about it there are a couple thousand years of writing on the subject.

5. I have never heard of such a thing.

   Actual sacrament bread is treated respectfully, but not just normal everyday bread.

6. What the fuck

7. I’ve never heard of worshipping bread from anyone who is religious in America.

8. That would be considered worshipping an idol

9. Again: We don’t do that here.

10. I grew up Methodist (basically a more progressive version of Catholicism) and we took communion every week. Breaking communion bread was just a symbol of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. The bread was his body being broken and the wine symbolized his blood. Taking communion was just a remembrance of his sacrifice. With that being said, I have literally never heard of anyone worshipping the bread itself, or any bread for that matter. In my mind that makes it seem like they missed the point.

11. I’m guessing these are Orthodox Catholics right? I’m Roman Catholic and have never seen or heard of this being done.

12. I really like this question. We get alot of questions that are presented that we are weird for what we do (and many time, it’s not even right). This one ask something that OP feels is unique to than to them and actually trying to see if it truly is.

    I haven’t heard of anyone seeing bread as sacred.

13. This seems like the kind of shit you do when you live through famine.

14. My grandpa was born in america to catholic polish parents and i never heard of this

15. >bread is considered body of Jesus

    Yeah, a Catholic thing. But only during Eucharist

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transubstantiation

16. The Communion Bread and only the Communion bread is considered the Body of Christ. Some Denominations view his as a symbolic thing so the bread itself is not holy, and some view the eucharist itself as having been transformed at the moment of blessing by a priest/officiate thus making it holy. What you describe is not normal behavior for Catholics, nor any other Christian Sect that I know of in the US, or any Non-Christian Religion that I know of either.

    Edit: To me this sounds like a reaction to having gone through a period of famine and starvation.

17. This was not a thing when I was a kid, not in any of my 16 years of Catholic school.

18. My Polish Catholic grandparents did not teach us anything like this, bread is just bread.

19. Have never heard of this, but it sounds like a form of idol worship.

20. I’ve never heard of such a thing, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some religious group here that does that. We have a pretty broad religious diversity here.

21. I have never seen or heard of anyone doing that with bread they bought at a shop and eat at home.

22. I get the impression that even among American Catholics, the communion bread is purely symbolic in all ways except for the ‘no, it’s literally Jesus’s body you guys the pope says so’ angle. Evangelicals/Protestants typically consider communion to be pure symbolism, in my experience.

    The idea of an American Catholic considering literally all bread everywhere to be the bleeding, undying flesh of Jesus himself would be considered incredibly odd and virtually unheard of. Like the sandwich I just ate is just bread, whether it be Sunday or not, and even a nun (or what have you) would agree. The only exception would be communion bread kept around for that exact purpose, and again, most people consider the ‘body and blood’ angle to be more of a guideline.

    Note that people could still quibble with you if you waste bread. But not for religious reasons necessarily.

23. I’m a Catholic and that’s absolutely bizarre. It’s only the body of Christ after consecration. To “worship” any old bread sounds theologically improper at best. It’s idolatrous.

    Jesus was a human being. Should we be worshiping all human beings?

24. I was raised Catholic. The bread is not holy unless it’s been blessed by a priest. Once my cousin and I were helping my aunt with some behind the scenes stuff at the church and we found the communion wafers and ate a bunch of them. We got a lecture about not taking things that don’t belong to us, but part of the lecture included that they didn’t count as being Eucharist bread because it was not blessed. So, if supplies intended to be used for communion aren’t even special until the priest gets to them, then certainly regular bread is not special at all. I’ve never heard of anyone treating normal bread as special at least.

25. As someone who grew up orthodox Jewish, Jews do this too. It’s seen as bad to throw out bread and people will specifically not throw it out in the garbage.

26. I’ve never heard of that.

27. OK so there is a Catholic thing in which people do I think in a way believe when they take communion they are in fact partaking in the blood and flesh of Jesus Christ. Or they at least believe that the act of communion has some kind of transformative property or effect on those that partake. Nobody I have ever heard of treats just any old bread that way.

    It should also be noted that Catholics are not the most prolific sect of Christians in the US, there are a large number of protestants who while many take communion do not generally believe they are partaking in Christ’s blood or flesh. I’ve taken communion dozens of time, it’s symbolic, and frankly pretty obviously symbolic if you read the Bible in context. I think you could be a Christian your entire life and never take communion, it is a good physical reminder of the tenants of the faith, it isn’t necessary.

28. No. There’s a large Polish Catholic community in my area, no one does this.

29. As an American Catholic: no

30. I’ve never heard of this, and I grew up Catholic in an area with a large and influential Polish population.

31. I have never seen this in the US. Is it seen as a weird old person thing or is it seen as normal in Catholic households over there?

32. “No.”

33. Yes we bow to the bread god 5 times a day, or else we get turned into toast.

34. No.

35. The majority of practicing Christians in the US are Protestants and we don’t do Catholic practices like this. Most Protestants don’t even believe that the Eucharist becomes the actual body and blood of Christ. That’s a Catholic belief. We believe it’s only a symbol.

36. Nope – I’ve never heard of such rituals. In fact I can’t think of any everyday object that is treated with that kind of reverence.

37. I was brought up in a very catholic family, I have three uncles that are priests and an aunt that is a catholic nun. No one I have ever know worshiped bread or even revered it very much.

38. No this is unheard of

39. They believe that *all bread* is the body of Christ? Wow, that’s quite some dedication. But no I’ve never heard of that before over here.