Day 362: Our Daily Bread (2828-2837)

• It’s Day 362!!

• “GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD”

• Paragraph 2828 says, “‘Give us’: The trust of children who look to their Father for everything is beautiful. ‘He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.’ He gives to all the living ‘their food in due season.’ Jesus teaches us this petition, because it glorifies our Father by acknowledging how good he is, beyond all goodness.”

• In this petition we get to simply TRUST OUR FATHER

• That DAILY BREAD can mean a lot of things

• Paragraph 2837 says, “‘Daily’ (epiousios) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition of ‘this day,’ to confirm us in trust ‘without reservation.’ Taken in the qualitative sense, it signifies what is necessary for life, and more broadly every good thing sufficient for subsistence. Taken literally (epi-ousios: ‘super-essential’), it refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the ‘medicine of immortality,’ without which we have no life within us. Finally in this connection, its heavenly meaning is evident: ‘this day’ is the Day of the Lord, the foretaste of the kingdom to come. For this reason it is fitting for the Eucharistic liturgy to be celebrated each day. The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive…This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear and sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage. The Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven.”

• We don’t live on bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the Mouth of God

• We ask God in this prayer for just what we need

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and thank you. Thank you so much. Please receive our thanks. Help us to grow in trust, God, Father. Help us to grow in trust. Help us to be able to see every one of your blessings as blessings, and even every one of our struggles as your presence in the midst of us, that our struggles are one of the ways you allow us to get close to you. And that is so hard to see. It is so hard to see, because pain is real. Struggle is real. Suffering is real. Death is real. But help us to see you in everything. Help us to call out to you in everything. And to trust you for everything, because the trust of children who look to their Father for everything is beautiful. And we trust you and love you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• Paragraph 2828 says, “‘Give us’: The trust of children who look to their Father for everything is beautiful. ‘He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.’ He gives to all the living ‘their food in due season.’ Jesus teaches us this petition, because it glorifies our Father by acknowledging how good he is, beyond all goodness.”

• Even if the answer is NO, it glorifies God to come before Him and ask

• Some people feel that asking God for something makes them selfish 

• When we ask God for ANYTHING, it is acknowledging how GOOD He is

• The parent who loves their child loves when that child comes and tells them what is in his/her heart and what he/she needs

• Would you be willing to give me what I need?

• That is such an incredible act of love

• How much would the Father love when you come before Him and ask for whatever it is that you need?

• Paragraph 2830 says, “‘Our bread’: The Father who gives us life cannot but give us the nourishment life requires-all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists on the filial trust that cooperates with our Father’s providence. He is not inviting us to idleness, but wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation. Such is the filial surrender of the children of God: To those who seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he has promised to give all else besides. Since everything indeed belongs to God, he who possesses God wants for nothing, if he himself is not found wanting before God.”

• Matthew 6:25 says, “Consider the lilies of the field. They do not sow or spin, but Solomon, in all of his splendor, was not arrayed like them.”

• Jesus is inviting us to be free from worry

• “God, I know that I can ask and I can trust.”

• Paragraph 2831 says, “But the presence of those who hunger because they lack bread opens up another profound meaning of this petition. The drama of hunger in the world calls Christians who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility towards their brethren, both in their personal behavior and in their solidarity with the human family. This petition of the Lord’s Prayer cannot be isolated from the parables of the poor man Lazarus and of the Last Judgment.”

• If we are going to have a heart like the Father, then we must be concerned for all the poor

• If we come before God and ask Him for our daily bread, then we have to look around us and ask if we are able to give them their daily bread

• Can God work through us in this way, that they can be cared for because we have hearts like our Father?

• St. Benedict’s motto (one of them) was “Ora et Labora” aka PRAY AND WORK

• Paragraph 2834 says, “‘Pray and work.’ ‘Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.’ Even when we have done our work, the food we receive is still a gift from our Father; it is good to ask him for it and to thank him, as Christian families do when saying grace at meals.”

• Paragraph 2835 says, “This petition, with the responsibility it involves, also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing: ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but…by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,’ that is, by the Word he speaks and the Spirit he breathes forth. Christians must make every effort ‘to proclaim the good news to the poor.’ There is a famine on earth, ‘not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.’ For this reason the specifically Christian sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: The Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist.”

• We do not want to spread the Good News of the Gospel without actually meeting people’s needs

• Jesus commands us to take care of those who go without

• Jesus commands us to actually meet their needs

• “I was hungry and you fed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was ill and in prison and you visited me.”

• We have to meet the needs of the people around us

• We also have a COMMAND to proclaim the Good News to the poor

• Paragraph 2837 says, “‘Daily’ (epiousios) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition of ‘this day,’ to confirm us in trust ‘without reservation.’ Taken in the qualitative sense, it signifies what is necessary for life, and more broadly every good thing sufficient for subsistence. Taken literally (epi-ousios: ‘super-essential’), it refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the ‘medicine of immortality,’ without which we have no life within us. Finally in this connection, its heavenly meaning is evident: ‘this day’ is the Day of the Lord, the foretaste of the kingdom to come. For this reason it is fitting for the Eucharistic liturgy to be celebrated each day. The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive…This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear and sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage. The Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven.”

• Do you realize that every time you have prayed the “Our Father” and you say the words, “...give us this day our daily bread…” you have been praying FOR THE EUCHARIST

• “...give us this day our SUPER-ESSENTIAL BREAD…”

• “...gives us this day our EUCHARIST…”

• When Jesus gave us this prayer, He literally meant for us to say, “...give us this day THE EUCHARIST…”

• THE SUPER-ESSENTIAL BREAD OF LIFE!!

• THE BODY OF CHRIST!!

• THE MEDICINE OF IMMORTALITY!!

• It means all the things we need

• It means the trust we have in the Lord

• BUT…

• It also means YOU have been praying for THE EUCHARIST

• Let it inflame your desire for the Eucharist even more and more and more

• For our non-Catholic friends who have made it here to Day 362 and you have been listening to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, there might be a spark

• There might be something in you that is the Lord calling you to become Catholic and enter into full communion with the Church 

• Let this be the final grain of sand that makes you give in and surrender to God

• The people who taught you “The Lord’s Prayer” did not realize it but they were teaching you to pray that one day, you would be given THE EUCHARIST

• They taught you to pray that one day, you would receive THE BODY OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE EUCHARIST

• Before you even knew about the Catholic Church, every time you prayed “The Lord’s Prayer” you were asking God to someday give you THE EUCHARIST

• Maybe this is a sign or invitation to take the next step

• Whether it is joining RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) or talking to the priest in your town

• If it is something in your heart…

• The Eucharist is not an invention

• Paragraph 2837 says, “‘...The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive…This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear and sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage. The Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven.”

• THIS IS YOUR PRAYER!!

• Let this prayer fan that flame of love, that flame of desire for Jesus in the Eucharist so that all of us may desire Jesus more and more in the Eucharist

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• HOW BOUT DEM COWBOYS!!!!!!!! 🤣 🤣 🤣