Most of us are not fortunate enough to live in close proximity to the daily celebration of the Sacraments according to the old rites, if our current poll in the left side bar is any indication. In such a situation, we remember not to take these founts of graces for granted while we pray that some day soon we may both appreciate them and be able to make daily use of them. In Jesus of Nazareth, Benedict XVI tells us that it was well accepted among the Church Fathers that the petition of the Pater noster, “Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie”, speaks in the first place of that supersubstantial (epiousion) bread, the Blessed Sacrament of Our Lord’s Body and Blood.

I’ve excerpted below two passages, which I’ve translated, the first from St. Thomas Aquinas and the second from St. Augustine, which speak to this point.

After a long paragraph in which he explains the various vices against which this petition speaks, at the last Thomas gives also this interpretation of the petition in his commentary on the Pater noster:

Invenitur quidem alius duplex panis: scilicet sacramentalis, et panis verbi Dei. Petimus ergo panem nostrum sacramentalem, qui quotidie in Ecclesia conficitur; ut sicut illud accipimus in sacramento, ita detur nobis ad salutem. Ioan. VI, 51: ego sum panis vivus, qui de caelo descendi. I Cor. XI, 29: qui manducat et bibit indigne, iudicium sibi manducat et bibit. Item alius panis est verbum Dei. Matth. IV, 4: non in solo pane vivit homo, sed in omni verbo quod procedit de ore Dei. Petimus ergo ut det nobis panem, idest verbum suum. Ex hoc autem provenit homini beatitudo quae est fames iustitiae. Nam postquam spiritualia habentur, magis desiderantur; et ex hoc desiderio provenit fames, et ex fame satietas vitae aeternae.

Indeed, one can find another and two-fold sense of “bread”, namely the sacramental bread and the bread of the word of God. We are asking, therefore, for our sacramental bread which is daily confected in the Church, so that just as we receive it in the sacrament, it may also be given to us unto salvation. John 6:51: “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.” I Corinthians 11:29: “He who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment upon himself.” Again, another “bread” is the word of God. Matthew 4:4: “not by bread alone does a man live, but by every word which comes forth from the mouth of God.” So we are asking that He may give us bread, that is, His word. From this word there comes to a man hunger for righteousness. For once spiritual things are tasted, they are the more craved; and from this craving there comes hunger, and from the hunger, the fullness of eternal life.

St. Augustine writes about this same petition (quoted in Thomas’ Catena Aurea):

In Graeco dicitur ‘epiusion’, hoc est supersubstantialem. Non iste est panis qui vadit in corpus, sed ille panis vitae aeternae, qui animae nostrae substantiam fulcit. Latinus autem hunc quotidianum panem dicit, quem Graeci dicunt advenientem. Si quotidianus ille est panis, cur post annum illum sumas, quemadmodum Graeci in oriente facere consueverunt? Accipe quotidie quod quotidie tibi prosit: sic vive quod quotidie merearis accipere. Mors domini significatur, et remissio peccatorum. Qui vulnus habet, medicinam quaerit; vulnus est, quia sub peccato sumus; medicina est caeleste et venerabile sacramentum.

In the Greek manner of speaking, “supersubstantial” is expressed by the word “epiousion”. This is not that bread which enters the body, but the bread of eternal life, which supports the being of our soul. The Latin speech calls this bread “daily”, which the Greeks call “supervening” [he renders epiousion as advenientem]. If that bread is “daily”, why do you receive it after the one year period, as the Greeks in the East have been accustomed to do? Take daily that which may benefit you daily! And so live that you may be worthy to receive it daily! It signifies the death of the Lord and the forgiveness of sins. The one who has a wound, seeks medicine; our sinful state is the wound; the heavenly and venerable Sacrament is the medicine.