Video Transcript

Emily Mentock: Welcome back to The Real + True Podcast. I’m your co-host, Emily Mentock.

Edmund Mitchell: And I’m Edmund Mitchell.

Emily Mentock: And on The Real + True Podcast, we are exploring different ways to unlock the beauty and truth of the Catechism for the modern world. This season of the podcast, we’ve been going through the fourth pillar of the Catechism, which is all about Christian prayer. And right now we’re working our way through the Our Father. 

So today we’re going to be talking about the lines “Give us this day our daily bread;” that part of the Lord’s Prayer, it’s the second petition. And just as a quick reminder, the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer talk about God and His name, His kingdom, and His will. And then this begins the next four, which concern our needs: “Give us this day our daily bread.” 

So Edmund, what are your thoughts to kind of kick off this episode about “Give us this day our daily bread?”

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. I love this one. As I was thinking about this episode, I feel like lots of people might have the experience of in their private thoughts—well, I guess all thoughts are private—but in their private moments saying, “God, I want something” or “I need something.” 

I think of that story of the young kid who hears about the fact that God will give us what we pray for, or he was told that. And so at night, he prays for God to give him a bicycle. The next morning he goes downstairs, there’s no bike. The next night, he prays for God to give him a bicycle. Goes downstairs the next morning, no bike. And then his mom notices that one of the statues of Mary is gone.

And so she goes upstairs and looks in the room and this kid is praying and he’s saying, “God, if you ever want to see your mother again, please give me a bike.” 

And so I feel like this is one that we have a lot of feelings about. Or we’ve prayed for something and not received it, and those things. So I’m excited for this because I think it’s really just a rich topic for people, and it’s something that we can help them dive deeper into what it means to have a relationship with the Lord.

Emily Mentock: Yeah. I love that that story highlights that we ask God for things we want; for things we need. But yeah, things we want. God wants us to have that relationship with Him, which includes expressing our needs in prayer. That’s so essential.

Of course, we can do that in our spontaneous vocal prayer in our lives each day. But it’s so important that it’s included in the way that Jesus taught us to pray, because He wants us to ask so He can answer our prayers, and then we can learn through that relationship to trust in Him and to let go of our fears for if we’ll be provided for or not. 

But I think we should clarify—and it’s as important as we’re teaching the words of the Lord’s Prayer—what are we really asking for in the Lord’s Prayer when we pray, asking for our daily bread?

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. And just again, I know every episode in this whole project is encouraging people to dive into the Catechism, but it’s so cool when you take time to reflect on these things that you might’ve heard for years and years if you grew up Catholic. 

Or even if you’re not Catholic, you’ve heard about some of these topics or these phrases: The Our Father, the Lord’s Prayer, and “Give us this day our daily bread.” Just the few paragraphs that cover this, it’s so rich. And there are things in here; the “daily bread,” meaning “super substantial,” and all of these things in here they’re rich with meaning. So in this petition in particular, Jesus is teaching us a lot to pray for our needs to turn to our Father.

And I think it’s really important when we’re teaching this, that we help people see; help people kind of navigate the fact that they might have prayed for things and not received them. So we need to make sure that we’re teaching the true generosity that God has; a true kind of reliance on Him that he’s calling us to. And that it’s more like a father and a son or daughter than it is a divine slot machine that we can just like, “Oh, if you say these prayers, then you get this thing; this reward.”

Emily Mentock: Yeah exactly. The Catechism says in paragraph 2830 about what “our bread” is. It says: “The Father who gives us life cannot not but give us the nourishment life requires..” God didn’t give us life for us to just come about suffering. We talked about that in the previous episode with the problem of suffering. He gave us life to have life. 

“He’s not inviting us to idleness, but wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation. Such is the filial surrender of the children of God.” So God wants us to ask Him for our needs, He wants to respond to our needs, and He doesn’t want us to worry about whether or not He will provide for us.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. I love that. When you’re praying the Lord’s Prayer, or you think about the importance of intercessory prayer, or the importance of prayer as a petition, you don’t think about the fact that God wants you to just maybe wake up in the morning, pray for these petitions and move on. 

To free you of that anxiety and worry and to just say, “I’ve asked for this, and now I can move on and be less anxious and worried because I’ve given this over to God and now I can move on.”

Emily Mentock: I love that point.

Edmund Mitchell: Oh, go for it. Go.

Emily Mentock: I love that point because I’m just thinking of how we started this pillar. We were talking about the five types of prayer, right? The different ways we can pray: thanksgiving, blessing, adoration, praise, and of course, petition. But we’re not supposed to get caught up in petition for all of our prayer. 

And so to your point that God wants us to ask for our needs and then move on to all the other things that we need to have this full, loving relationship with the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. We can’t just get caught up in our prayers asking always for something. 

And I think that it’s something we all do; we all have the temptation to do. I know at other times in my relationship with God in my sort of level of prayer that I can achieve, all of my prayer is in the moments where I want or need something, turning to God and asking for it; maybe occasionally also turning and saying “Thank you” when I feel it’s been received.

But the most trust that we can have in God is to ask and then move on to all these other parts of the relationship and other forms of prayer.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. I also love how the Catechism reminds us about the wording. Again, is so rich with meaning. And the Lord teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And it reminds us of this communal nature, the solidarity with others; that we’re not just to wake up and pray for our own needs, but we should be mindful of other people’s needs and pray for our daily bread when we pray this. 

So this is not just a personal prayer for my needs, but it’s a prayer of intercession for others. And that’s really a hallmark of the Christian life is intercession.

Emily Mentock: Yeah. I love that. The Catechism says in paragraph 2636 speaking about intercession, that “The first Christian communities lived this form of fellowship intensely.” They prayed together “Give us this day our daily bread.”  And that means maybe in your heart to accept that what you want is not as much as what you’re asking for of what we need. And I think that’s a beautiful way to reframe that. 

We talk all the time about how we want the Catechism to unlock truths of our faith; to inspire us then to go and live it differently based on a deeper understanding of knowing and loving God. 

So I think an important thing to consider is the next time you’re praying the Lord’s Prayer, whether it’s in Mass, or during your rosary—or however you pray—as a family, when you get to this line, “Give us this day our daily bread,” don’t just think about your family or yourself in that moment, but think, “Okay. How are we making sure we’re asking for the needs of all of us; all our brothers and sisters?”

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. The Christian community; the first Christian community living that intercessory prayer is really inspiring, especially if you go back and read the Acts of the Apostles and you think about how intensely they live this out. We should pray for one another. And then you also think about the sacraments and the liturgy. All of worship is this participation in intercessory prayer. Jesus is interceding for us. 

I also love this prayer in particular, intercession and petition; asking God for our daily needs. And the fact that most people might have an experience of either having a prayer answered, or not having a prayer answered, and being really upset about that or disappointed. It brings to mind what it says in the Catechism about Moses, and that this is a dialogue with God; bringing our needs to God is a dialogue. And there’s this part here where it talks about it being this battle. Oh man, I’m blanking on this. I’m sorry

Emily Mentock: About the most striking example of intercessory prayer. It says, “Only after long debate does Moses attune his own will to that of the Savior God” (CCC 2575).

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. And this part, too. Moses also learns how to pray in dialogue with God. “He Balks, [he] makes excuses, above all [he] questions: and it in response to his question that the Lord confides his name.” I love that. 

When we’re teaching this petition and we’re reflecting on the Lord’s Prayer, we’re saying, “Yeah, praying for something and not getting it in return is part of this process that God wants to be in with you. He wants to work through that. He wants to teach you. He wants to”—like you just read like “He wants your will to be attuned to His will. And that doesn’t mean you should stop asking him for things.”

Emily Mentock: I love the intentionality again, as we’re going through these petitions with a very specific order, starting of course with God and His name and His Kingdom, but then also making sure we’re acknowledging first “Lord, your will be done. Then only after that should we also ask for our needs to make sure that it’s clear in our relationship.”

Now, this is very set for us in the Lord’s Prayer, and we don’t think about it with the intention of it as much as we could or we should. But the fact that it goes first like “God, hallowed be your name through us and in us. ‘Thy Kingdom come,’ we’re working for the Kingdom. We want the second coming to happen. We want to be with you. Then, Your will be done; total deference of my will to yours.I want that. I want my will to be united with your Son’s and with you, Lord. And then, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’”

And we haven’t even gotten to the other petitions yet. But I just think that order is so important. And we can see—through how the Catechism explains intercessory prayer—how that’s always deferential to God’s will, even though it’s appropriate and helps form our hearts to His heart to be in this dialogue with God for what we want. So we can then understand maybe by how He answers those prayers, what we really need according to His will.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. And I remember often in ministry having people respond to maybe the Gospel or this very initial evangelization; the initial proclamation, and we’re talking about a personal relationship with Jesus, and God wants to have a relationship with you. I remember often—especially more science or intellectually-minded people—coming up to me and saying, “But what does that mean? Give your heart over; have this relationship, what does that practically mean?”

And when I think about it, there’s really two big things people want kind of initially in this relationship with God. They either want to hear his voice and have direction, or they want help with things in their life. And I think this is one of the most practical ways that you can help someone start to see what a life following Jesus looks like practically. 

To start getting practical with this, what does it look like? What does the life of a disciple look like when you’re asking God for things? And how do we reconcile asking God for things with the experience of maybe He’s not answering stuff? So I’m excited to get into this part on the practical nature of this petition.

Emily Mentock: Yeah. Let’s talk about some of the practical things that the Catechism says. So the Catechism includes an amazing quote which is attributed to Saint Ignatius. We don’t have the actual record of him saying this, but his fellow Jesuits say that he said this. And this comes from paragraph 2834 of the Catechism, but Saint Ignatius said it: “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.” I definitely heard that before. 

So even when we have done our work, the food we receive is still a gift from God. Go out and choose to do the will of the Father; go out and work for the things that you want and that you believe are God’s will if you’ve done good discernment. But also recognize that anything that is given to you comes from God the Father, and anything that you still want you should be asking for. 

And I think it’s such an important part to weave into the practical aspect of understanding “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. And I think it’s important when we’re teaching this or helping others with this, that we just address that we’re not talking about a naive, blind optimism. We’re talking about a practical, tangible, realistic understanding of the world, and we’re not just looking back on the day and going, “Oh, isn’t that nice? God answered all of our prayers.”

I love this idea of the “God of the gaps,” that we should pray for these gaps and just step into these gaps. One story that really stuck with me for a long time and helped me realize that I was praying for things from God, but not actually having faith in them, is a story of a pastor in a small town; the farming town is experiencing a drought, and they experience this for months and months.

And the pastor says, “Hey, we’re going to have this moment of prayer. We need to all gather together as a town and have this prayer, and we’re going to pray for rain to come.” And they all show up. And as the pastor’s standing up in front of everyone and begins to pray, he noticed that there’s a small girl, and she’s the only one who’s brought an umbrella. 

And I was just thinking—when I first heard that story—I thought, “Oh no. I do that all the time.” Like, “Yes, I believe in God; I believe He’s going to provide for me, but not really.”

Emily Mentock: Yeah. It’s almost like sometimes in our attempt to accept God’s will, maybe we also prematurely accept suffering. We don’t expect God to actually answer our prayers. We’re like, “Okay God, I know you’re not going to let me starve, hopefully. My super essential nourishment is always in the Eucharist. And I know I’m supposed to trust on you as if I had nothing.”

But how often do we sell God short by not expecting Him to give us the abundance we ask for? And that faith means showing up in our real life; expecting that prayer to be answered. I love that. Maybe we all need the faith of that little girl.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. And I get it. It can be tough to feel like at one point in your life you were that little girl; you kept bringing your umbrella and nothing happened. And I think that’s why it’s also important to help people understand that we have to practice an increase in our awareness of how God is moving in our lives. This is why I’ve realized throughout this project that I talk about journaling so much.

Emily Mentock: Every podcast episode. If you guys aren’t journaling by now, you have failed Edmund.

Edmund Mitchell: I’m so sorry. I did not realize how important; I guess I take it for granted. But again, if you’re actually intentionally writing down your prayers. I heard this from Father Mike Scanlon, that he would have this—I think he called it an intercessory prayer ledger. And he would actually have dates, and he would return to it often because you forget that two months ago you were praying hard for this thing, and two months later something happens. 

And unless you’re actually returning back to those things and writing when they come up how God actually answered it—maybe in a different way, but better—you might forget. You might just forget and not have an awareness even just in a two-month time span, let alone a year or longer. So I think that awareness and developing that awareness. And again, this is what it looks like to have a practical, lived relationship with God.

Emily Mentock: Yeah. That is so true. And many saints have also done that same type of journaling for their relationship of God, of things they’ve prayed for or interceded on for others. One that comes to mind; one of my favorite soon-to-be saints God-willing: Blessed Solanus Casey, the Capuchin priest from Detroit. 

He was quite known for favors that came through his intercession to the point where his provincial asked him to start recording them; record the things he would pray for. He would kind of go every other line in the journal, “This person came to me today with this illness, and I’m praying for these things.” And then he would be able to go back again—at the direction of his superiors—when sometimes those things he would be praying for, that person would be healed. A favor from God that maybe couldn’t be explained in a straightforward way would be an answered prayer to go back and record every favor that got answered as well. And he ended up with—I think it was seven or eight of these journals with all this intercession. 

Now that doesn’t mean that all of your prayers—and not every single one even in Father Solanus’ journals—went back and had him able to record with certainty that prayer was answered and what they were asking for from God ended up happening. But it is a great way to keep track of what are you asking for? What’s on your heart? And then help you remind you to be ready with your umbrella. 

Because I’ve definitely had experiences in my life where I was praying for something; maybe I forgot about it, or lost focus on it, or started to doubt whether or not it was going to happen in my life. Then all of a sudden, boom! In the most unexpected way—God of surprises—the prayer’s answered. And maybe I was caught in the rain then, when I could have been ready with my umbrella and enjoying it even more.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. And that’s another thing I’ve heard that really just convicted me was this idea of making plans and leaving like a 10% or adding something to your plans where the only way this is successful—or the only way this happens—is that God intervenes. 

So, “Hey, we want to put on this Advent mission; we’re planning for a hundred people. You know what? We’re going to plan for 10% more. We’re going to plan for extra, where the only way this works is that God fills in the gaps. Or, budgeting. We’re budgeting for this project. We have this big-year impressive plan, but let’s add a little extra and pray for that extra where the only way this is successful is if God shows up.” 

And I just think that’s a different way of walking with the Lord. Not to be too lame about this, but it does make life exciting, in a way. It’s like, “Wow, this is something.” There’s this—not drama in the bad sense—but there’s this drama of living a relationship with God that is exciting to be a part of.

Emily Mentock: Yeah. You know what this makes me think of? And the people who in my life have witnessed this sort of trust in God and praying to God to meet their needs and their desires of their heart for things; the people who’ve witnessed that the best to me, are people who—at different times in their life—had served as missionaries. 

Real missionaries who are going out and doing some sort of pretty direct evangelization work with dependence on others to provide the resources for them to be able to do that work. So people who would have to raise the money they would need to then go travel across the country, or serve on a college campus to do mission work, or if they were going to be serving somewhere and they needed to put on an event to do outreach, they were people who needed to rely on donors to provide that; they didn’t have an organization to back them; it wasn’t a job. 

People who served as missionaries. And I think about where we are as a Church right now, and how much we’ve been hearing about needing to be a Church on mission; needing to go out. And maybe not all of us are called to walk away from our jobs and having a plan for stable income to go and serve as missionaries in that way. 

But I think we can all learn from the missionary spirit of reliance on God to provide; to go and do what He’s asking of us, and have this total trust in God that He will provide. And to dream big, like you’re saying. Leave space for God to come and be part of the work. Do your part of it, and invite Him to do the rest. And I think that I would consider that a missionary spirit and a missionary trust in God to provide.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. Have you had any experiences with prayer intentions, or experiences of communities that were really good at prayer intentions? Or sometimes they call them prayer chains or things like that?

Emily Mentock: Not necessarily a prayer chain, but something that is a real hallmark of the spirituality of the Archdiocese of Detroit following a pastoral letter from Archbishop Vigneron called Unleash the Gospel. But even before that—when they were even starting the synodal process that then led to that pastoral letter—the idea of intercessory prayer teams, people with a particular gift for intercessory prayer; people who were commissioned to the essential work of intercessory prayer is something that I was very much exposed to there during my time serving the Church in Detroit. 

And anytime we had any sort of major diocesan event—for example, we had one weekend where it was really focused on priestly renewal, where we brought all the priests together for a retreat and conference; for time together to make sure they’re focused together as a presbyterate to go on mission. And an essential part that nobody would’ve questioned of putting that event together, is that we would have an intercessory prayer team on-site.

Edmund Mitchell: That’s awesome.

Emily Mentock: I’ve been a part of other events, retreats, and things like that where it’s not just a retreat of the people who are participating and the organizers, but an essential team member for the retreat is someone who is going to be praying for those on the retreat. 

So that is not something I grew up around necessarily, but it’s something that I’ve been exposed to in the past five or six years, and I have seen and believe in the impact that it’s made when you have intercessory prayer teams dedicated and consider that an essential role in whatever you’re trying to do for the Church.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. I think it’s so important to have that type of real-time, in-the-moment intercessory prayer experience. Especially I’m thinking of OCIA or youth ministry, or some of these other things where we’re inviting people into a lived relationship with Jesus Christ. And so often, we don’t show people examples of it, or we talk ourselves into going, “Well, I don’t want to be boastful” or “I don’t want to be showy.” 

But I think of how many times in my life that people asked for prayers and I missed an opportunity? People said, “Hey, could you pray for me for this?” And I missed an opportunity to say “Yes. Let’s do that right now, just real quick.” I’m also thinking. Oh, sorry. Go.

Emily Mentock: No, I was going to say it’s true. 

The point of evangelizing or teaching others, if we want them to believe and have this sort of trust in God, we need to show it to them by showing our own trust in the Lord, whether it’s praying in that moment, or making sure that you’re praying alongside; some other way of showing them that you are expecting the prayer that they’ve asked you to pray for; to intercede for them, you do expect it to be answered. 

And making sure you’re affirming that, so that their trust in God can be strengthened through your trust in God.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. This is making me think. I really feel this conviction about being disciples of the Lord’s Prayer, and that when especially if you’re teaching OCIA or you’re teaching people who are really new to a relationship with Jesus, and someone shares a struggle or a challenge or something that they are praying to God for, to just in that moment pray with them because this petition says, “Give us this day.”

And I’m just thinking about how many times someone came to me and said, “Hey, could you pray for me for this?” And I go, “Yeah, I will.” And in my head I’m like, “Tomorrow.”

Emily Mentock: Right. “The next time I go to Mass, I’ll remember this; offer it with my participation in the Mass” or something like that. But you’re right. “Give us this day our daily bread.” 

One of the things that I wanted to be sure to mention is that we shouldn’t even stop short at “daily.”  It’s the bread of every moment of our lives. 

We were talking in the last episode about discernment and trusting God’s will, and trusting that God has a plan for not just every day or every year or the big picture of your life, but for every moment of your life. He’s loving you into existence at every moment of your life. And so we should think that He is ready and able to provide for us in every moment.

And sometimes those prayers do get answered in that moment, and sometimes they don’t. But that still is building trust in the Lord. The Catechism explains that the filial trust that we talked about earlier on in this pillar of the Catechism, kind of comes into play in asking God for our needs.

It says in paragraph—like I said—2734: “Filial trust is tested—it proves itself—in tribulation. The principle difficulty concerns the prayers of petition, for oneself and for others in intercession. Some even stop praying because they think their petition is not heard. Here two questions should be asked: Why do we think our petitions have not been heard? [And] How is our prayer heard, how is it ‘efficacious?’” 

So acknowledgement—similar to talking about God’s will, the Agony in the Garden—that trust is tested, but also learned in the moments where maybe it’s not clear to us how our prayer is being heard by God.

Edmund Mitchell: Man, I don’t know why, but the image that’s coming to mind is the idea of getting ready to go on a trip; going on a trip with your father; a loving father, God. And the trip is great; it’s all great. And then you come back home and then there’s all of this stuff in the house; all these wonderful gifts and snacks and all these things that you could have brought and you’re like, “The trip was really good. But Dad, why didn’t you bring this?”

And him going, “Well, you never asked.” It’s not that God wants to test us or challenge us or hold things back, but also thinking of this idea of your dad kind of standing in front of a closed door, and you know there’s a bunch of stuff he is willing to bring on the trip, and he’s kind of asking you, “Ask me for things. What things do you think I could bring on this trip for us?”I want you to ask.”

And thinking in your mind “Okay, what does Dad think a good trip is? What does my father think we need? What can I ask of him?” He has this limitless gifts and grace to give us. 

And that’s a really cool exercise to sit down in prayer. And it’s more about that dialogue with God than it is like being really specific about “I better pray for these specific things, otherwise God isn’t going to give them to me” or “I might as well not ask because God’s not going to answer.”

But it’s about that dialogue; that moment of sitting in front of the Father and Him kind of smiling and going, “What do you want to ask me of? What do you want to ask me for?”

Emily Mentock: That is so true. I love a line that I’ve heard from others who have guided me in the faith at different times, that “God is never outdone in generosity.” The more we trust in Him, the more we are able to receive His gifts.

And it’s true that trust is tested and proved in the same moment. Because I even think of times where the other day I was going through something difficult, but I went to Mass and I was walking home and was praying; expressing my needs; my desires to God, saying, “These are the things ahead of me, and I this from you.”

But then reminding myself, “Okay. But at the end of the day, I’ve just received the greatest gift you’ve given us, which is your Son in the Eucharist;” that super essential daily bread that the Catechism talks about in this section as well.

“At the end of the day, I do know that even I’m saying, ‘I need all these things,’ I really only need you, God.” And in that same moment of honestly as I could expressing to my Father what I wanted, what I hoped for; what I felt would bring joy and goodness to my life, that I could also—in that same moment—realize that really all I need is whatever God does provide to me; that super essential bread; that nourishment of life in a relationship with Him. 

And I think that that takes practice. I would not have ever been able to have that same trust when I first started attempting to have a relationship with God 10 years ago But it’s something that I’m so grateful to have learned over time, so that I can even more boldly continue asking for my needs without bringing along the baggage of skepticism or disappointment.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. The “baggage of skepticism.” Man, I feel convicted by that. There’s so many times that I have gone into prayer with that baggage, and it can be good; God wants us to give that over to Him. 

We don’t have to pretend we’re not skeptical, but I just think about how many times I’ve been a spoiled kid and just brought all that skepticism to prayer and just been like, “Man, I’m asking for these things, but I’m not having an attitude of trust or an attitude of even faithfulness in any way.”

And I think it’s really convicting and important for us to help other people realize that we are called to have that filial trust in this Father.

And as the Catechism goes on, I really encourage people to go into the paragraphs that we’ve mentioned around here where it talks about complaining of not being heard. “How Is our prayer ‘efficacious?’” Because it’s very practical, realistic, but also very encouraging and convicting that one of the answers is when we ask “Why is our prayer not being heard?”

In paragraph 2736, it says: “Are we asking God ‘for what is good for us?’” That’s just a very interesting thing to reflect on—especially for things you’ve been praying for for a long time— “Am I actually asking for God for what is good for me? Is this a prayer asking God for what is good for me? And maybe there’s something God wants to teach me, or something bigger that God wants me to pray for.”

Emily Mentock: Yeah. I love that. There’s definitely been times in my life where I had to switch gears from asking for what I thought I wanted or what I thought was good for me, to “God, help me better understand what is good for me. Help me to better understand your plan for this part of my life that feels like a struggle, so that I can see and trust you in it.” 

I love the follow-up; the next paragraph as well, 2737. “Do not be troubled if you do not immediately receive from God what you ask him; for he desires to do something even greater for you, while you cling to him in prayer.”

That reassurance is so beautiful and so needed, and I think something that we all need—but especially as we’re teaching others to pray and to trust God in their prayer more—that reassurance; that to not be troubled, because He always desires more goodness for us than we can even imagine for ourselves.

And He desires our ultimate goodness in ways that we will never understand until we receive it one day with Him in heaven. And I think that that is such an important and reassuring thing for what we ask for for ourselves, but also for what we ask for for others in intercessory prayer. 

I’m just thinking in this moment of the times when I was in my years really away from practicing my faith, there were people who were still praying for me. And then in my own little life, experienced my moments of conversion and God calling me back, and then all those people getting to tell me later that they felt that their prayers for me had been answered—even if I wasn’t even asking for it. 

And I just think about that for the people that I’m praying for in my life now. Whether or not their prayer is efficacious; whether or not mine is, we’re all praying for each other. And that goes back to that beauty of “Give us this day our daily bread,” and we can trust that together, our prayers as the people of God will be answered.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. I love that. As we’re wrapping up, I think about how easy it is to get this dynamic; to really understand this dynamic when you’re thinking about a father and a son, or you think about kids. But for some reason, for all of us,—even for me—it’s hard to do it in practice with God. 

But I think about the other day you’re baking something; maybe it’s cookies. Or baking cookies, and a small kid of yours is constantly, “Can I eat the cookies?” And you’re like, “No, not right now.” “Can I eat the cookies?” “Not right now.”  And maybe everyone’s heard or experienced a situation where a kid is like, “You’re so mean, Dad. You don’t care about me.”

But then the cookies come out of the oven and they’re like, “These are amazing. This is so good.” Now we could have the debate about “Is the cookie batter better than the actual cookie?”

Emily Mentock: Right.

Edmund Mitchell: I know that’s a thing. It’s not a perfect analogy, but we get that so easily in real life, but I have a hard time getting that in my relationship with God. And do I really believe that something is just half-baked when my prayers aren’t being heard? Do I actually have faith that God is working on something and it’s going to be better later?

Emily Mentock: Yeah. So good. So I think that final call to action for people, we’ve tried to give some practical tips to go along. Definitely go back and read these paragraphs of the Catechism to dive in further. 

But maybe the final call to action would be the next time you’re praying the Lord’s Prayer today—or this weekend even in Mass when we’re praying it as the congregation of the people; the assembly at Mass—think about what it is you’re asking for, and think about the trust that is asked of us as we’re asking for “Give us this day our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer. 

Well, thank you so much for joining us for another episode of The Real Plus + Podcast. We’re unlocking the truth and beauty of the Catechism to help people around the world encounter its pulsating heart: Jesus Christ. You can visit realtrue.org to watch or listen to more episodes of the podcast, or find it on your favorite platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and more. Have a great day!