As Jesus is the cornerstone upon which the Church is built, so are his teachings the unifying cornerstone of Christian doctrine.

...this day our daily bread

In the fourth petition of the Pater Noster or Lord’s Prayer, the focus is on our needs for the coming day. In the context of an itinerant ministry, we can understand the immediate dependence of Jesus and his disciples upon God’s daily provision. First century workers also lived the precarious life of a day laborer, paid at the end of each day’s work. Today, we live in a different world and especially in wealthy modern countries may find the need to pray for daily provision of food to be rather pointless. But, we all have things which could worry us. The point of praying for our daily needs is that we don’t worry incessantly. As the old saying goes, if you are worried, pray; if you have prayed, don’t worry (Matthew 6:11) and consider the daily needs of others.

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