“Give us this day our daily bread.”

It is not yesterday’s or tomorrow’s bread.

Let us become aware (“give us”) that ruminating on the past and speculating about the future distance us from the Kingdom of God as soon as they intrude upon “this day.”

Jesus invites us to understand the mechanisms of the mind and the process by which these psychic energies decay when we obstruct the flow of the present with the rocks of the past or the future.

These few lines were written while my daughter, during prayer, pointed out that the prayer wasn’t well written…because there was a repetition between « this day » and « daily. »

Too often, we interpret this line as a request to God to provide for our needs, an invitation not to get lost in the anxiety of not having. All of this is indeed present in this part of Jesus’ prayer, but that’s not all: Jesus teaches us here a whole way of understanding life.

Today, this day,
here, now,

This moment, where I am,
Here, I am,
Here is “I am,”
here is now, God is always present,
to make this communion with the divine essence possible, we must understand this teaching of Jesus on the apprehension of the future or the regret of the past,

But also the more positive side,

The excitement brought by future projections and the bitterness brought by nostalgia for the past,

As soon as we step outside of “today, this day,”
it has no reality,
everything is just conjecture, artificial rearrangements,

And reality is today, this day,
God is now,
This also applies to the fantasies, fantasies, conceptual constructions induced by books, cultures, discussions about a God of the past and the anxiety or haste linked to encountering a God of the future (Heaven/Hell).

Here we touch upon the powerfully innovative aspect of Jesus’ teaching. With this word, he frees us from the old mode of relating (religion) to the Divine, which was based on the fear of punishment or the eagerness for reward.

With this word, Jesus invites us to a living relationship with God.

It always takes place in the present.
Our relationship with God
The relationship with God is a continuous process that exists for all time, since it is constantly being renewed.

In this sense, it becomes difficult to claim precedence or any hierarchical relationship based on seniority or acquired knowledge.

Just because a practitioner is older or more learned does not exempt them from the perpetual renewal of their relationship with God.
Specifically, asserting one’s authority obscures the reality of our relationship with God.
And even if we constantly use the word « God, » when we behave this way, speaking only of Him, it is God we forget.

Jesus reminds us of the radical equality of the brothers in the community.
Living in the present also means being like « little children » and ceasing to live in calculation, regret, haste, or nostalgia. And thus, truly becoming adults.

©FJNov 2025
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