“Give us this day our supersubstantial bread.”
The depth in this one line of prayer is unfathomable. The modern translation of “daily” is also appropriate, for you ask your Abba to be a Father and take care of your needs as you tend His affairs: “Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? …Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:26, 33). However, the variety of Greek terms used to define the bread include “daily,” “supersubstantial,” and “chief,” all of which point to the true bread that you should long to receive: “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). “Give me, God Almighty, your Son.” You are praying for the gift of Christ Himself, primarily in the Eucharistic bread: “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him” (John 6:57). In this great exchange, the God that made all things, “All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made” (John 1:3), gives Himself entirely to you, body and soul, holding nothing back for Himself, but giving Himself to your body and soul that you may be one in love: “thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21). When you understand the love being given to you in Holy Communion, your most fundamental need, love, is addressed: “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger: and he that believeth in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Just as frail, fallen human beings need daily food to survive, so too do you need daily love to love as God loves, thus Jesus is the chief, supersubstantial, daily bread that you need to live the life of love. How needy you are, and how the Father longs to give to you what you need! Love loves to give, and how can you receive if you do not need? You need food, you need water, you need clothing, and “after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things” (Matthew 6:32), but most of all you need love, and this is the gift God most wants to give you, and to seek His love is to seek the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, pray this line, asking to receive your Spouse in the Eucharist, see Him in adoration often, hear Him in the Scriptures, consider Him in your mind, imitate Him in your life, that through faith you may see Him everywhere, for He gives you all things that you may fall more in love, for there is nothing in the world that does not contain His goodness in some capacity. Now this imitation of His life leads to a second bread: “My [bread] is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work” (John 4:34). It is asking the Father to give you the grace to live on love; strengthened by Communion and this prayer, you are then called into action: Love at all times. Feast on love, which will bring you o, o so low: “He that will be first among you, shall be your servant” (Matthew 20:27); “He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble” (Luke 1:52), but your great hunger for love and to love well will be quenched: “He hath filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:53), “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill” (Matthew 5:6). When this fundamental need is satisfied, all else becomes a gift: “I speak not as it were for want. For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content therewith” (Philippians 4:11). There is one detail that has been missed, however, and that is the words us and our in the line. Rather than pleading for your own love, which is necessary, you are commissioned to have the audacity to ask for the fulfillment of all desire not only for yourself but for all. You have been given the gift of love that you may impart it to the poor and helpless that seek love: “He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him: how doth the charity of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). This is primarily to be done in deed, “My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth” (1 John 3:18), but if you cannot offer a good deed, offer a loving word, “To speak a word in due time, is like apples of gold on beds of silver” (Proverbs 24:11), and if none of these are possible, love them in prayer, praying for your neighbor to receive the daily bread of love.