Mother Teresa of Calcutta sent some of her sisters to a deprived area in New York. They were startled by a new form of hunger, particularly the hunger of loneliness among old people, living

on their own and rarely if ever visited by their family. The hunger they experienced in Calcutta could be satisfied by bread and rice. This new hunger had to be fed with a different bread. The

sisters visited these lonely people, chatted to them, and helped with laundry, cleaning and shopping. Hunger of the spirit is experienced by people who have been abandoned, abused,

rejected, mocked, or deprived of human dignity in one way or another. Jesus was mindful of another hunger when he said ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right’.

‘Lord Jesus Christ, you said of yourself, ‘I am the bread of life.’ You provided bread for people when you multiplied the loaves and fishes. You moved on to describe yourself as the spiritual bread to satisfy the hungers of the heart and mind. And then you promised to give the bread which would be your flesh offered up on the cross for the life of the world. This is your presence in the Blessed Eucharist. Strengthen our faith. Call those who have strayed away. Help them to realise what they have been missing. (Fr. Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap)