Our daily Bread of Life (14:23)

Ordinary Time, 19th Sunday. I recently visited a restaurant so full of distractions that it was impossible to share with the people you came with. When we go out to eat, we really want to share special moments with people we love. But we fill up the restaurant with so many things that we end up dissatisfied. Elijah is feeling very dissatisfied until God feeds him. God wants to feed us too. In today's Gospel Jesus refers to Himself as the Bread of Life. He is trying to show the people that He is what we are looking for.

How do we receive the Bread of Life? Yes, through the Eucharist, but more importantly through daily prayer. You are not too busy to pray. The truth is that you are too busy because you don't pray. Prayer helps us discern what to say Yes to and what to say No too; it keeps our priorities straight. But more importantly, prayer feeds us spiritually. It is when we are feeling spiritually dissatisfied that we have the need to fill our lives with more and more stuff. John Paul II was an example of the power of prayer. I have experienced it in my own life. This is where we get our energy, our purpose, and our satisfaction: chewing daily on the Bread of Life.

(12 Aug 2012)