The Fourth Petition
23 Q. What do we ask in the Fourth Petition: Give us this day our daily bread?
A. In the Fourth Petition we beg of God all that is daily necessary for soul and body.
24 Q. What do we ask of God for our soul?
A. For our soul we ask of God the sustenance of our spiritual life, that is, we pray the Lord to give us His grace of which we stand in continual need.
25 Q. How is the life of the soul nourished?
A. The life of the soul is nourished principally by the food of the word of God and by the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. 26 Q.
What do we ask of God for our body?
A. For the body we ask all that is necessary for the sustainment of our temporal life.
27 Q. Why do we say: Give us this day our daily bread, rather than: Give us bread this day?
A. We say: Give us this day our daily bread, rather than: Give us bread this day, to exclude all desire of what is another's; and hence we beg the Lord to help us in acquiring just and lawful gains, so that we may procure our maintenance by our own toil And without theft or fraud.
28 Q. Why do we say: Give us bread, and not: Give me bread?
A. We say: Give us, rather than, Give me, to remind us that as everything comes from God, so if He gives us His gifts in abundance, He does it in order that we may share what we do not need with the poor.
29 Q. Why do we add: Daily?
A. We add, Daily, because we should desire that which is necessary to life, and not an abundance of food and other goods of the earth.
30 Q. What more does Daily signify in the Fourth Petition?
A. The word Daily signifies that we should not be too solicitous regarding the future, but that we should simply ask what we need at present.
(Tomorrow, The Lord's Prayer - The Fifth Petition)
Pius X, Pope St.. Catholic Catechism of Saint Pius X (1908) (pp. 48-49). Kindle Edition.
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