Ordinary Time Week 27: Wednesday

“Give us each day our daily bread.” (Luke 11:3)

Saint John Cassian comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“Give us this day our supersubstantial bread.” Another Evangelist uses the term daily. The first expression indicates that this bread has a noble and substantial character by which its exalted splendor and holiness surpass all substances and all creatures. With “daily” the Evangelist shows that without this bread we cannot live a spiritual life for even a day. When he says “this day,” he shows that the bread must be eaten each day. It will not be enough to have eaten yesterday unless we eat similarly today. May our daily poverty encourage us to pour out this prayer at all times, for there is no day on which it is unnecessary for us to eat this bread to strengthen the heart of the person within us. “Daily” can also be understood as referring to our present life. That is, “give us this bread while we linger in this present world.” We know that in the time to come you will give it to whoever deserves it, but we ask that you give it to us today. He who has not received it in this life will not be able to partake of it in that next life.” (Conferences, 9)

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
Who in the abundance of Your kindness
surpass the merits and the desires
of those who entreat You,
pour out Your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads
and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Lent, Week 1: Tuesday

“Give us today our daily bread...” (Matthew 6:11)

Origen of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

Since some understand from this that we are commanded to pray for material bread, it will be well to refute their error here and to establish the truth about the epiousion (ἐπιούσιον, supersubstantial) bread. We must ask them how it could be that he who commanded us to ask for great and heavenly favors should command us to intercede with the Father for what is small and of the earth, as if he had forgotten — so they would have it — what he had taught. For the bread that is given to our flesh is neither heavenly, nor is the request for it a great request.

We, on our part, following the Master himself who teaches us about the bread, shall treat the matter explicitly. In the Gospel according to John he says to those who had come to Capernaum seeking for him: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you seek me, not because you have seen miracles but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled.” One who has eaten of the bread blessed by Jesus and is filled with it tries all the more to understand the Son of God more perfectly and hastens to him. Hence his admirable command: “Labor not for the meat that perishes but for that which endures to life ever-lasting, which the Son of Man will give you.” The “true bread” is that which nourishes the true humanity, the person created after the image of God.” (On Prayer, 27)

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Look upon Your family, Lord,
that, through the chastening effects of bodily discipline,
our minds may be radiant in Your presence
with the strength of our yearning for You.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Glory to You Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen!

Voices ever ancient, ever new. Lent: Week 1, Sunday

“The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Genesis 3:6)

Saint Gregory of Nyssa offers the following insight on this verse from today's Gospel:

“Those who have been tricked into taking poison offset its harmful effect by another drug. The remedy, moreover, just like the poison, has to enter the system, so that its remedial effect may thereby spread through the whole body. Similarly, having tasted the poison, that is the fruit, that dissolved our nature, we were necessarily in need of something to reunite it. Such a remedy had to enter into us, so that it might by its counteraction undo the harm the body had already encountered from the poison. And what is this remedy? Nothing else than the body that proved itself superior to death and became the source of our life.” (The Great Catechism, 37)

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Grant, almighty God,
through the yearly observances of holy Lent,
that we may grow in understanding
of the riches hidden in Christ
and by worthy conduct pursue their effects.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

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Glory to You Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen.