Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread

In the middle of the Lord’s Prayer is this line: “Give us this day our daily bread”. While this may appear to be a simple plea asking God to continue nourishing us, it bears a deeper meaning. From the original text, this “daily bread” is not just any bread; it is “super-substantial bread”; “panem superstantialem”. As Catholics, we understand that to be the Eucharist, the Living Bread, God Himself. What we’re praying for every time we say this line in the Lord’s Prayer, is to align ourselves with God, who in His profound humility, is present in the form of simple bread. God invites us to humble ourselves too, by asking us to share a meal with our neighbours. As Henri Nouwen puts it, “The beauty of the Eucharist is precisely that it is the place where a vulnerable God invites vulnerable people to come together in a peaceful meal.”