Bakeries Abound But Where's the Bread?

“Give us today our daily bread" Matthew 6:11 NABRE

There are several bakeries where I live; chain bakeries and small business bakeries. They produce desserts like cakes, brownies, cinnamon rolls, and muffins. They’re not places to go for freshly baked bread like rye bread or sourdough.

There are supermarkets, and there’s at least one quick-service restaurant, in my area that bake bread onsite. There’s also a small business that bakes its own baguettes and croissants, but my impression is that it's mainly a café and sandwich shop. These are not simple, bread-only bakeries.

If you want a celebratory cake or an indulgent treat, you can go anywhere—whether you want to support a small business or revisit an iconic chain. But as far as bread-only bakeries, I don’t know of any and I don’t even know where to go to look for one.

The world doesn't want us to have sustenance 

I have two memories from my youth of learning that bread bakeries existed, having never visited one myself.

In a Spanish class I saw different vocabulary for different bakeries; panadería is a bread bakery and pastelería is a sweet bakery. Thus I inferred that bread bakeries were a thing…somewhere out there in the big wide world.

I remember also a children’s book series that taught about the lives of children in other countries. I remember a “day in the life” example, of what I believe was children in Palestine, mentioning that they may stop at a bakery on their way home from school to buy a fresh product that sounded like a bread and not a dessert.

I’m reminded of how in the West we can often find ourselves inundated with indulgences and opportunities for indulgences, but harder-pressed for real sustenance.

The Christian sojourn

Like seeking a bread bakery, seeking Christ in all of His unglamorous crucified glory, can be so difficult amidst the frivolous sugary nonsense of the world. Notably in the West. I’m reminded of a fast-food commercial I saw years ago that talked about Sundays having the “best” things in them, to advertise their Sunday specials. But I saw no reference to worship in the commercial. But there was football.

Maybe I’ll get to visit a bread bakery someday. I’ll walk into a cozy bakery where the aromas are toasty and the bakers have labored with pride for generations. Maybe it will be somewhere in the United States, maybe it will be elsewhere. Maybe somewhere with fewer drive-thrus and more children playing in the streets. The U2 song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is playing in my mind.

I don’t know what it would be like to walk into a bread bakery someday because I’ve never walked into one. But I have a sense that it will be true, and it will be good, and it will be beautiful.

Isn’t that our Christian life? Knowing we haven’t found what we long for but trusting that someday we'll get there?

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.’” John 6:35 NABRE

Chelsey Kennedy writes at Seeking the Mercy in the Mundane on Substack.

Related reflections:

The Crucifix Against the Rye Bread: A Gift of the Rosary

Fast-Food Soft Drinks & Satan’s Lies: Beware "Tiny" Temptations