TRINITY xvi
CHRIST taught us to pray for daily bread in saying the
Pater Noster, and added some comments to the prayer. He taught that for
the very reason that God is our Father and we his family, it is fitting
that we should seek our bread from his hand. We say the Pater Noster in
this sacrament, remembering how Christ went from the Last Supper straight
to Gethsemane, and prayed to his Father there in the spirit of a true Son.
Abba, Father, he said, asking for the wholesome bread of life if he could
have it, but willing to receive the bitter cup of death and shame if it
was his Father’s will. St. Paul says that it is the Spirit of Sonship,
overflowing from Christ to us, which speaks in our hearts when we say Our
Father. We kneel with Christ in Gethsemane to say that prayer, and even
then it is not truly said unless Christ says it in us through the Holy
Ghost.