Thursday, June 16 : Saint Cyprian

“Give us this day our daily bread.” This can be understood both spiritually and materially, because either understanding is of profit in divine usefulness for salvation. For Christ is the bread of life and the bread here is not for all, but is ours. And as we say “Our Father” because he is the Father of those who understand and believe, so too we say “our bread” because Christ is the bread of those of us who attain to his body. Moreover, we ask that this bread be given daily, lest (…) by the intervention of some grievous sin (…) we be separated from the body of Christ, as he himself declares, saying: “I am the bread of life which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of my bread he shall live forever. Moreover, the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51) (…) The Lord himself warns us, saying: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you” (Jn 6:53). And so we petition that our bread, that is Christ, be given us daily, so that we, who abide and live in Christ, may not withdraw from His sanctification and body. But it can also be understood that we who have renounced the world and have cast aside its wealth and pomp in the faith given by spiritual grace seek only food and sustenance for ourselves (…). Moreover, those who have begun to be disciples of Christ according to their Master’s words, renouncing all things, should ask for bread daily and not put off their petition and its desires, as the Lord himself again prescribes in these words: “Be not anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will have anxieties of its own. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Mt 6:34). Worthily then does the disciple of Christ ask for sustenance for the day, since he is forbidden to worry about the morrow.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team