Chapter 7 - Give us This Day our Daily Bread

It is only after having prayed to God about that which concerns Himself, that we are directed to think of ourselves, and to solicit Him for our own needs. In the order of nature, children ask their fathers for their daily food. In this respect, God is incomparably more our Father than any earthly father can be; for He, as first and universal cause, provides for the wants of every creature: and under the name of bread is comprised every thing which is necessary to preserve this present life. All men, young and old, rich and poor, great and small, are as regards temporal necessities, in the condition of children, absolutely unable to provide for themselves unless God furnishes the means. We contribute to it indeed by our care, our labor, and our industry; for since the Fall, we have been condemned to eat our bread by the sweat of our brow. But our labor and our industry can produce nothing of themselves: they are only aids to Providence, who is the true support of the human race, who merits on this account all our gratitude, and to whom we manifest our dependence, when we ask Him every day to " give us our daily bread." Since the fall of the first man, he and all his posterity have been obliged to labor in order to live: it follows consequently, that whoever can work and does not work, has no right to a subsistence; he has no claim to ask any thing of God, and should not complain if it is refused him. If, however, he neglects nothing which he can accomplish by his own labor, and by the employment of his talents according to the command of God, then he may confidently trust that He who feeds the birds of the air will not be unmindful of him. It is bread, it is what is necessary, that we ask of God; what will nourish the body, and not what will encourage sensuality; what will protect us from harm, not what will keep us in idleness, luxury, and vanity. Our wants supplied, we should be content to rest there, and avoid all excess, which is no less harmful to the body than to the soul.

Let us use the gifts of God according to His intention, and not to offend Him. Let us confine ourselves to their simple use, and not seek indulgences which are unworthy of an immortal soul, and which God forbids. Let us always remember that the present life is only a means of obtaining eternal life; and if our present life ought not to be our end, how much less should that be which is destined only to preserve it! If God refused temporal blessings to those who abused them, we should never abuse them. Should we be less sober and less prudent because the correction of this abuse is deferred, it may be to the other life? Let us then eat in His presence with gratitude the bread He gives us; let us eat it with the intention of devoting to His service the strength it gives. Let us not be anxious for the morrow. It is our daily bread we ask. Let it suffice that we obtain it, and let us not extend our thought beyond. To-morrow we shall repeat our request for new needs. Has one ever seen him want for bread, who, after taking the prescribed measures, leaves the result and reposes upon God? Why these fears, these forebodings, these precautions, so derogatory to the goodness of our Father? Why are we not like children who prefer to obey and please their parents, and who live without care of that which concerns their life? Avarice, disguised under the term economy, and distrust, anxiety, and all the troubles of which bodily wants are the occasion, are condemned by this petition of the Lord's Prayer; which if rightly understood and practised, will admirably regulate our feelings and our conduct with regard to earthly things, will detach our affections, will moderate our desire to acquire and keep, and will elevate us to a noble independence in the use of that which our necessities demand. We do not say, "give me my bread," but, "give as our bread;" asking our common Father for all His children, upon a principle of universal charity. If then some of our brethren are needy, and God gives us an abundance, it is an indication that He wishes we should come to the relief of their indigence, giving them a portion of our superfluity: for it is evident that it is His intention to grant support to all, since He requires we should ask it for all; but this intention would be frustrated if the rich were not the established ministers of His providence in respect to the poor, and if they should not enter into His arrangements which are thus regulated, to give opportunity to the rich as well as the poor to exercise many virtues, especially as He is not pledged to provide for the poor by miracle. Hence we go directly contrary to the will of God, and to the petition He has put in our mouth, when we do not from our abundance, relieve the poverty of our brothers; and we deserve to be deprived of the comforts we have the hardness to refuse them. If God does not deprive us of them, it is because He has in reserve for us some greater sorrow. Besides, the bread which God gives you is due no less to the prayers of the poor than to your own prayers; since they have asked for you as much as for themselves. You owe Him then as His portion, what you have above your need; and He has an acquired right to it.

According to the explanation of the holy fathers, this bread is the Eucharistic Bread, which is the supernatural bread of our souls, which should be no less daily than ordinary bread, and which our Father would be disposed to distribute every day if we were in a condition to eat it every day. We should neither doubt His intention in this respect, nor that of Jesus Christ, who gives His flesh in the Eucharist, that we may understand that as common bread is our daily food, so His body is designed to be the daily nourishment of our souls.

It is also the wish of our mother the Church, who has declared that she desired the faithful should communicate every time they assist at the Holy Sacrifice, according to the custom of the early centuries; and certainly as Saint Ambrose said, we ought all to live in such a way as to be fit to participate daily in this heavenly banquet. It is at least important that we should not be satisfied with an annual Communion, which the Church makes a rigorous obligation, or even with a monthly Communion only; and that we should never let a long time pass without approaching the holy table. Communion frequently received, with the right disposition, is the most effectual means of attaining to Christian perfection. The Fathers understand also by this bread, the word of God, whether announced from Christian pulpits, or given in books of devotion. Let us then be careful to hear this divine word as often as we can, with the desire to profit by it; and let us form the habit of daily spiritual reading. We shall draw from both practices the greatest advantage; and we shall be indeed guilty if we do not make use of the supernatural food which God gives us in profusion, and which He requires us to ask of Him.

- from The Christian Sanctified by the Lord's Prayer, by Father Jean Nicolas Grou