I am the Bread of Life: A meditation before the Blessed Sacrament

 

‘I am the Bread of Life’

 

Jesus, in the gospel of St John you tell us that you are the bread of life, and that whoever comes to you will not hunger, and who believes in you shall never thirst. (John 6.35)

 

Lord, we come to you hungry to follow in your way, to know your truth and to receive your life. You alone can satisfy; our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.

The Feeding of the Five Thousand - Croydon Minster
'I am the bread of life...'

 

‘I am the Bread of Life’. You spoke those words to the crowd of Five Thousand, for whom you multiplied the gift of the child, five loaves and two fish.

 

Take the meagre offerings of our prayer and devotion, and multiply them. May the grain of our lives yield thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold.

 

May we cast our ‘bread upon the waters’ (Ecclesiastes 11.1) and be people who know the lavish generosity of your life and love, receive it and share it with others.

 

Your generous love is given when you are broken. Your body broken on the cross, your lifeblood poured out for the life of the world. We see you broken in the sacrament of the altar to bring completion to our lives, feed us with your presence and lead us to the Father.

 

Lord Jesus Christ, Bread of Life, feed us, your people, in our earthly pilgrimage.

 

You are the Bread of Life, yet not everyone feeds on you, may all who seek to be fed in their body and spirit find their satisfaction in you.

 

Bread of Life, we pray tonight for all who hunger for bread.

 

We pray this night for the people who are beginning to go hungry in Ukraine, the starving of Afghanistan, of Tigray and Ethiopia and all in food poverty in this country.

 

Jesus, in your body we find healing of our bodies, our minds, our spirits. Bread of Life, be to us the food for our journey.

 

May all your people find their souls satisfied and may we be led to the banquet of heaven.

 

Silence

 

Blessed be God.

Blessed be his holy name.

Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man.

Blessed be the name of Jesus.

Blessed be his most Sacred Heart.

Blessed be his most Precious Blood.

Blessed be Jesus in the most holy Sacrament of the altar.

Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.

Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most Holy.

Blessed be her holy and immaculate Conception.

Blessed be her glorious assumption.

Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.

Blessed be St Joseph, her spouse most chaste.

Blessed be God in his angels and in his saints.