"I do not want to send them away hungry,"

 "I do not want to send them away hungry."
Jesus.
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Prayer is the food for our spirit, the soul.

Bread is the food for our body, a matter.

As we are composed of spirit and matter,

we are in need of both.
prayer and bread.

It is in our prayer that we ask God for our daily bread.

lt was Jesus who taught us that prayer.

So Jesus knows fully well

that we need both prayer and bread.

Prayer is a two way process,  speaking and listening.

When we speak God listens.

When God speaks we must listen.

When we pray our full attention must be on God.

God's attention is always on us, whether we pray or not.

This mutual attention is mutual union, two persons united with each other.

Some people give more importance to their speaking to God,

rather than listening to what He says.

If we don't listen to God,  our prayer  is not complete, as it becomes one way process.

Some people are experts in verbal prayer.

They pray at the top of their voice

as though God is miles away

and only the loudest possible voice can reach Him.

But God is within us, in our hearts.

Silent prayer is more effective than verbal prayer

as we can hear God's silent voice

more clearly in it

than in verbal prayer.

Because God speaks through inspirations.

Some people are of wrong opinion

that time spent in prayer is time wasted, 

as it can earn us our livelihood

if spent in some work.

But we must remember one thing.

Time spent in prayer is time spent with God, the Creator and owner of the whole universe.

Will He allow those

who spent their time with   Him

to suffer from hunger?

Now coming to the point,

("What were you doing so far?"

"We were coming to the point, now, we have come to the point.)

Jesus' public life was a communal prayer,

participated by Jesus and the faithful of His time.

That was also a two way process.

Jesus was preaching His word,

which means that God was speaking with His people

who were listening to Him

and

the people were submitting their petitions

and Jesus was answering them.

Wherever He went people followed Him with Faith.

His words touched their heart

and made them accept Him as the Messiah.

Jesus knew that 

those who were following Him

did so leaving their routine work behind.

Jesus,

being always merciful,

took pity on them and

fulfilled both their temporal and spiritual needs.

He gave them the good news needed for their salvation and forgave their sins. (Spiritual)

He heeled the sick, fed them with food and raised the dead to life. (Temporal)

One day Jesus went up into the mountain.

Great multitudes came to him,

bringing with them

the lame,

the blind,

the deaf,

and

the crippled.

He took pity on them

and  healed them all.

The people were with Him for three days

listening to His words

without worrying even about their food.

Jesus was moved with pity for the multitude.

For, they had been with Him for three days  listening to His words,

with nothing to eat.

He said to His disciples

"I must not send them away fasting, or perhaps they will grow faint on their journey."

He did not stop with His words.

He fed the whole multitude

with just seven  loaves and a few small fishes,

multiplying them miraculously.

On another occasion, Jesus fed

more than five thousand people

with just five loaves and two Fishes.

He did this miracle

to prepare the minds of the people

for His next day's  announcement

about giving us His own flesh and blood

as our spiritual food.

Taking His flesh and blood as our daily bread will earn for us everlasting life.

Spending for Jesus

is

earning for us.

So, spending time with Jesus in prayer will not go waste.

Jesus will take care of our temporal and spiritual needs.

Prayer itself is our spiritual food as it strengthens our soul.

Holy Mass is the official prayer of the Church.

When we participate in it, Jesus gives Himself, His own flesh and blood, as our spiritual food.

Our union with Jesus during Eucharistic feast

is the most effective prayer,

as God Himself comes into our heart

to listen to our silent words.

How blessed are we to have our Creator as our food!

Let us pray and get united with Jesus!

Lourdu Selvam.