"Das eine Brot wächst auf vielen Halmen" (The one bread grows on many stalks) is a Christian

offertory The offertory (from Medieval Latin ''offertorium'' and Late Latin ''offerre'') is the part of a Eucharistic service when the bread and wine for use in the service are ceremonially placed on the altar. A collection of alms (offerings) from the c ...

hymn with words by

Lothar Zenetti Lothar Zenetti (6 February 1926 – 24 February 2019) was a German Catholic theologian, priest, and author of books and poetry. In Frankfurt, he was both a minister for young people and a parish priest. He was also active on radio and television. ...

set to an Israeli melody. It can be sung as a

round Round or rounds may refer to: Mathematics and science * Having no sharp corners, as an ellipse, circle, or sphere * Rounding, reducing the number of significant figures in a number * Round number, ending with one or more zeroes * Round (crypt ...

. Of the genre

Neues Geistliches Lied (, ''new spiritual song''), abbreviated NGL, is a music genre of songs in German intended for church usage, and based on contemporary lyrics and with music by contemporary composers. History The idea to reach young people by new songs for ...

(NGL), it has appeared in German hymnals since 1975. The hymn has been used for both Catholic Corpus Christi processions and Protestant Kirchentag conventions.

History

wrote the words of the

offertory hymn The offertory (from Medieval Latin ''offertorium'' and Late Latin ''offerre'') is the part of a Eucharistic service when the bread and wine for use in the service are ceremonially placed on the altar. A collection of alms (offerings) from the c ...

in 1972. It was included, with a melody from Israel, in regional sections of the 1975 German Catholic hymnal ''Gotteslob'', such as GL 931 in the

Diocese of Limburg The Diocese of Limburg () is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Cologne, with metropolitan see being the Archdiocese of Cologne. Its territory encompasses parts of the States ...

. In the 2013 edition the hymn appeared as GL 728 in Limburg, and as GL 969 in the

Diocese of Bamberg The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Bamberg (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Metropolitae Bambergensis'') is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Bavaria, one of 27 in Germany. In 2015, 32.9% of the population identified as Catholic, and 15.6% o ...

. It was also printed in other songbooks.

Melody and musical settings

The melody is a traditional tune, which originated in Israel and became an American folk song. It is in two parts which can be sung as a

. Herbert Bauerle composed in 1980 a four-part accompaniment for keyboard, with an optional upper voice, intonation, interludes and postlude, published in Beuerle's collection ''Singe, Christenheit''.

Usage

The song is an offertory hymn, especially recommended for celebrating

First Communion First Communion is a ceremony in some Christian traditions during which a person of the church first receives the Eucharist. It is most common in many parts of the Latin tradition of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church and Anglican Communion (ot ...

. In 2008, the song was the motto of a procession on the

Feast of Corpus Christi The Feast of Corpus Christi (), also known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, is a liturgical solemnity celebrating the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist; the feast is observed by the Latin Church, in addition to ...

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, in connection with a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

conference on species conservation. A service and procession in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

with a bishop from Osnabrück in 2012 used the same motto, reflecting the merger of many

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es to one. It has featured at Protestant Kirchentag conventions, such as 1983 in Hannover, where purple shawls demonstrated ('Create peace without weapons'), and in 2017 in Berlin to commemorate 500 years of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brot Wachst Auf Vielen Halmen, Das Eine Catholic hymns in German 1972 songs 20th-century hymns in German Neues Geistliches Lied