GIVE US THIS DAY

In the great Exodus, millions of Israelites were miraculously provided their daily bread from heaven—manna enough each day for that day.

In the Lord’s Prayer, the petition “Give us this day our daily bread” acknowledges that we want God’s help for whatever is needed to sustain life that day...spiritual and physical strength to deal with one more day of illness or rehabilitation, or things related to obligations or activities in that day.

What is the essence of our “daily,” rather than weekly, monthly, or yearly bread? It makes the seemingly-unmanageable manageable.

The well-known mantra “One Day At A Time” is the foundation of every 12-Step Recovery Program. A person mired in addiction carries into his first 12-Step meeting shame about his past and fear about his future. The balm of realization that he need only take one step, one day, even one breath at a time to sustain his recovery is life-saving.

Those of us who face setback, illness, or tragedy will fall into a downward spiral if we, too, don’t seek the foothold of that first step which stops the free fall, and that next step which starts the ascent. Each upward movement signifies a victory which must be internalized to sustain healing and, ultimately, recovery.

We reach to our Higher Power. We petition to find the foothold, to preserve the hope it signifies.

“Far from ruining the purity of solitary prayer, petition guards and preserves that purity. The solitary, more than anyone else, is always aware of his needs before God. ... His prayer is an expression of his poverty. Petition, for him, can hardly become a mere formality, a concession to human custom, as if he did not need God in everything.”

-Thomas Merton

So please give yourself just this moment, just this breath, to fill your soul with whatever it needs for this moment. 

Strength will come. 

God will provide.