Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Matthew 6:11

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"Give us this day our daily bread." What is "daily bread"? That for one day. For because He had said thus, "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven," but was discoursing to men encompassed with flesh, and subject to the necessities of nature, and incapable of the same impassibility with the angels:-while He enjoins the commands to be practised by us also, even as they perform them; He condescends likewise, in what follows, to the infirmity of our nature. …

Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 19 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

"Give us this day our daily bread." By the word "daily" He means what is sufficient for our existence, our essence, and our sustenance. Thus He teaches us not to worry about tomorrow. "Bread for our essence" is also the Body of Christ, of Which we pray that we may partake without condemnation.

Commentary on Matthew ↗

Cyprian

For Christ is the bread of life, and this bread belongs not to all men, but to us. This bread we pray that it be given day by day, lest we who are in Christ, and who daily receive the Eucharist for food of salvation, should by the admission of any grievous crime, and our being therefore forbidden the heavenly bread, be separated from the body of Christ. Hence then we pray, that we who abide in Christ, may not draw back from His sanctification and His body. (Tr. vii. …

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

These three things therefore which have been asked in the foregoing petitions, are begun here on earth, and according to our proficiency are increased in us; but in another life, as we hope, they shall be everlastingly possessed in perfection. In the four remaining petitions we ask for temporal blessings which are necessary to obtaining the eternal; the bread, which is accordingly the next petition in order, is a necessary. (De Don. Pers. …

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Jerome

Give us this day our daily bread. The word 'supersubstantial,' which we have expressed, is rendered in Greek as 'ἐπιούσιον,' a term that the Septuagint translators frequently translate as 'περιούσιον.' Therefore, we examined the Hebrew, and wherever they translated 'περιούσιον,' we found 'Sgolla,' which Symmachus translated as 'ἐξαίρετον,' meaning exceptional or outstanding, although he did interpret it differently in one particular instance. …

Commentary on Matthew ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

We call it our bread, yet pray that it may be given us, for it is God's to give, and is made ours by our receiving it.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗