Give us the Bread of your Will.

Jesus explains the Our Father to Luisa Piccarreta. 

 

I Myself wanted to pray as the first, making my voice resound from one end of the earth to another, and even up high in Heaven, saying: ‘Our Father, who art in Heaven’.  I did not say ‘My Father’, but I called Him Father of the whole human family, so as to engage Him in that which I was going to add:  ‘May all hallow your Name, so that your Kingdom may come, and your Will be done on earth as It is in Heaven’.  This was the purpose of Creation, and I asked the Father that it be fulfilled.  

 

As I prayed, the Father surrendered to my supplications, and I formed the seed of a good so great; and so that this seed might be known, I taught my prayer to the Apostles, and they transmitted it to the whole Church, so that, just as the people of the future Redeemer found salvation in Him and disposed itself to receive the promised Messiah, in the same way, with this seed formed by Me, the Church might pray and repeat my very prayer many times, and might dispose Herself to receive the good of recognizing and loving my Celestial Father as their Father, in such a way as to deserve to be loved as children and receive the great good that my Will be done on earth as It is in Heaven.

 

In this seed and in this hope that my Will be done on earth as It is in Heaven, the very Saints have formed their sanctity, and the martyrs have shed their blood.  There is no good which does not derive from this seed. And if in Redemption It wanted to come to save lost man, to satisfy for his sins – which man had no power to do – and to give him refuge and many other goods which Redemption contains, now, wanting to display even more love than in Redemption Itself by making my Will be done on earth as It is in Heaven, my Will comes to give man his state of origin, his nobility, the purpose for which he was created.  It comes to open the current between Itself and the human will, in such a way that, absorbed by this Divine Will, being dominated by It, the human will will give It life within itself, and my Will will reign on earth as It does in Heaven.”

 

And when my ‘Fiat Voluntas Tua’ has its fulfillment ‘on earth as it is in Heaven’, then will the complete fulfillment of the second part of the Our Father occur – that is, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’  I said:  ‘Our Father, in the name of all, I ask You for three kinds of bread every day:  the bread of your Will, or rather, more than bread, because if bread is necessary two or three times a day, this one is necessary at each moment and in all circumstances.  Even more, it must be not only bread, but like balsamic air that brings life – the circulation of the Divine Life in the creature.  Father, if this bread of your Will is not given, I will never be able to receive all the fruits of my Sacramental Life, which is the second bread we ask of You every day. 

 

Oh! how my Sacramental Life feels discomforted, because the bread of your Will does not nourish them; on the contrary, it finds the corrupted bread of the human will.  Oh! how  disgusting it is to Me!  How I shun it!  And even though I go to them, I cannot give them the fruits, the goods, the effects, the sanctity,  because I do not find Our bread in them.  And if I give something, it is in small proportion, according to their dispositions, but not all the goods which I contain; and my Sacramental Life is patiently waiting for man to take the bread of the Supreme Will, in order to be able to give all the good of my Sacramental Life.  See then, how the Sacrament of the Eucharist – and not only that one, but all the Sacraments, left to my Church and instituted by Me –  will give all the fruits which they contain and complete fulfillment, when Our  bread, the Will of God, is done on earth as it is in Heaven. Then I asked for the third bread – the material one.

 

How could I say: ‘Give us this day our bread’?  I could do so in view of the fact that, as man would do Our Will, what was Ours would be his, and so the Father would no longer have to give the bread of His Will, the bread of my Sacramental Life and the daily bread of natural life, to illegitimate, usurping, evil children, but to legitimate and good children, who would share in the goods of their Father.  This is why I said:  ‘Give us our bread.’  Then will they eat the blessed bread; everything will smile around them, and Heaven and earth will carry the mark of the harmony of their Creator.

 

After this I added: ‘Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.’  So, charity also will be perfect.  Once man has eaten the bread of my Will as my Humanity ate it, then will forgiveness have the mark of heroism, as I had it on the Cross.  Then will the virtues be absorbed into my Will and receive the mark of true heroism and of divine virtues; they will be like many little rivulets, which will gush forth from the bosom of the great sea of my Will.

 

And if I added,  ‘And lead us not into temptation’ – how could God ever lead man to temptation? – […] man is always man, free in himself, since I never take away from him the rights I gave him in creating him; and he, frightened and fearful of himself, tacitly cries out, and prays without  expressing it with words: ‘Give us the bread of your Will, that we may reject all temptations; and by virtue of this bread, deliver us from every evil.  Amen.’

 

See, then, how all the goods of man find again their connection, the tight bond of the ‘Let Us make man in Our image and likeness’, the validity of each of his acts, the restitution of the lost goods, as well as the signature and the assurance that his lost happiness, both terrestrial and celestial, is given back to him.  Therefore, it is so necessary that my Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, that I had no other interest, nor did I teach any other prayer but the ‘Our Father’.  And the Church, faithful executor and depository of my teachings, has it always on Her lips, and in every circumstance; and everyone – learned and ignorant, little and great, priests and lay people, kings and subjects – all pray that my Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

 

Extracts from Luisa Piccarreta’s The Book of Heaven, volume 15; April 14, 1923 and May 2, 1923.

 

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The Our Father as explained by Our Lord.

“You need nothing else to sanctify yourselves.”

Based on Chapter 203 of Maria Valtorta’s The Gospel as Revealed to Me.

[Our Lord is speaking to his Apostles.] And now I will teach you how to pray… Listen. When you pray, pray thus: "Our Father, Who are in Heaven, may Your name be held holy, Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven, and may Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are in debt to us, and do not put us to the test, but save us from the Evil One". » 

 

Nothing else is required, My friends. Everything man needs for his spirit and his flesh and blood is contained in these words as in a golden ring. With this prayer you ask for what is useful to the former and the latter two. And if you do what you ask for, you will gain eternal life. It is so perfect a prayer that neither the storms of heresies nor the course of ages will undermine it. […]. 

 

Remember it carefully. Meditate on it continuously. Practice it in your actions. You need nothing else to sanctify yourselves. If one were alone, in a heathen place, without churches, without books, one would already have all the knowledge to meditate on in this prayer and a church in his heart for this prayer. One would have a safe rule of sanctification. 

 

"Our Father". I call Him: "Father". Father of the Word, Father of the Incarnate. That is how I want you to call Him because you are all one with Me, if you remain in Me. Once man had to prostrate himself with his face on the ground to whisper, trembling with fear: "God!" He who does not believe in Me and in My word is still in such paralyzing fear… Consider the interior of the Temple [of Jerusalem during the lifetime of Jesus]. Not God, but the very remembrance of God is concealed from the eyes of the faithful by a treble veil. He who prays is separated by remoteness and veils, everything has been devised to say to him: "You are mud. He is Light. You are contemptible. He is Holy. You are a slave. He is King".

 

But now!… Stand up! Come near Me! I am the Eternal Priest. I can take you by the hand and say: "Come". I can grasp the veils and draw them, and thus throw open the inaccessible place closed so far. Closed? Why? Closed by Sin, yes. But even more closed by the dispirited thought of man. Why closed if God is Love, if God is father? I can, I must, I want to take you not into the dust, but into the azure; not far, but near; not as slaves, but as children on to the heart of God. 

 

Say: "Father! Father!". And never tire repeating this word. Do you not know that every time you say it, Heaven shines because of God's joy? If you said with true love no other word but that one, you would be saying a prayer pleasing to the Lord. "Father! Father!" the little ones say to their fathers. It is the first word they say: "Mother, father". You are the little children of God. I begot you from the old man you were and whom I destroyed by means of My love to give birth to the new man, the Christian. Call, therefore, the Most Holy Father Who is in Heaven, with the first word that little children learn. 

 

"May Your Name be held holy". Oh! Name, which is holier and sweeter than any other name and which the fear of the guilty taught you to conceal under a different one. No, no longer Adonai. He is God. He is the God Who in an excess of love created Mankind. And Mankind, from now onwards, with lips cleansed by the purification that I am preparing, should call Him by His Name, awaiting to fully comprehend the true meaning of the Incomprehensible One, when the best children of Mankind, united to Him, will rise to the Kingdom that I have come to establish.

 

“Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven". Desire its coming with all your strength. If it came, it would be the joy of the earth. The Kingdom of God in hearts, in families, among citizens and nations. Suffer, work, sacrifice yourselves for this Kingdom. Let the earth be a mirror reflecting the life of Heaven in each individual. It will happen. All this will happen one day. Centuries of tears and blood, of errors, persecutions, of darkness relieved by flashes of light radiating from the mystical Light of My Church will precede the moment in which the earth will possess the Kingdom of God. 

 

Oh! My Church: although a boat, it will never be sunk, as it is also a cliff unshakeable by breakers and will hold high the Light, My Light, the Light of God. And it will then be like the intense blazing of a star which, having reached the perfection of its existence, disintegrates, an immeasurable flower of the ethereal gardens, to breathe its existence and love at the feet of its Creator, in a glowing, fiery throb. But it will most certainly come. And then there will be the perfect, blessed eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

 

“And may Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven". The submission of one's will to the will of another person can be accomplished only when one reaches perfect love for that creature. The submission of one's will to God's can be achieved only when one achieves possession of the theological virtues in a heroic degree. In Heaven, where everything is faultless, God's will is done. You, children of Heaven, must learn to do what is done in Heaven. 

 

“Give us today our daily bread". When you are in Heaven, God alone will be your nourishment. Beatitude will be your food. But here, you still need bread and since you are the children of God, it is only fair to say: "Father, give us some bread". Are you afraid He will not hear you? Oh! no! Just think: If one of you has a friend and, if he finds out that he has no bread to offer another friend or relative, who has arrived in the middle of the night, goes to his friend saying: "Lend me three loaves, because a guest has arrived and I have nothing to give him to eat", can he possibly hear his friend answer him from inside the house: "Do not bother me, I have already bolted the door and my children are already sleeping beside me. I cannot get up and give you what you want"? No. If he has applied to a true friend and if he insists, he will receive what he asks for. […].

 

But when you pray the Father, you do not turn to a friend of the earth, but you apply to the Perfect Friend Who is the Father of Heaven. That is why I say to you: "Ask, and it will be given to you, search, and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to You". For the one who asks will receive, the one who searches always finds, the one who knocks will have the door opened to him. What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or hand him a snake instead of a roasted fish? A father who did that to his own children would be a criminal. […]. As a sound-minded person would not give a scorpion instead of an egg, with what greater bounty will God give you what you ask for! Because He is good, whereas you are more or less wicked. Ask, therefore, the Father for your bread with humble filial love. 

 

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are in debt to us" There are material debts and spiritual ones. There are also moral debts. The money or the goods that one has received as a loan and must give back, are a material debt. Esteem extorted and not given back and love wanted and not returned are a moral debt. To obey God, from Whom one would exact much giving Him very little, and to love Him are a spiritual debt. He loves us and is to be loved, as a mother, a wife, a son, from whom so much is exacted, are to be loved.

 

A selfish man wants to receive, but does not give. But an egoist is poles apart from Heaven. We are in debt to everybody. From God to a relative, from a relative to a friend, from a friend to our neighbour, to a servant, to a slave, because they are all beings like ourselves. Woe to him who does not forgive! He will not be forgiven. God, out of justice, cannot remit the debt of a man who is in debt to Him, the Most Holy One, if man does not forgive his fellow man. 

 

"Do not put us to the test, but save us from the Evil One". Pray with humility that God may avert temptations from you. Oh! humility! To know oneself for what one is! Without losing heart, but to know oneself! Say: "I may give in, even if I do not think I could do it, because I am but an imperfect judge of myself. Therefore, Father, if possible, deliver me from temptations by keeping me so close to You as not to allow the Evil One to harm me". Because, remember, it is not God Who tempts you to evil things, but it is the Evil One who tempts you. Pray the Father that He may support your weakness so that it may not be led into temptation by the Evil One.

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