Give us this day our daily bread.
Matthew 6:11

Words: Adelaide A. Procter, The Poems of Adelaide A. Procter (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1858), pages 385–86.
Music: Baxter (Burnap) Uzziah C. Burnap, in The New Alleluia, edited by M. Woolsey Stryker & Hubert P. Main (New York: Biglow & Main, 1886, number 102) (🔊pdf nwc).

Give us our daily bread,
O God, the bread of strength!
For we have learned to know
How weak we are at length.
As children we are weak,
As children must be fed—
Give us Thy grace, O Lord,
To be our daily bread.
Give us our daily bread—
The bitter bread of grief.
We sought earth’s poisoned feasts
For pleasure and relief;
We sought her deadly fruits,
But now, O God, instead,
We ask Thy healing grief
To be our daily bread.
Give us our daily bread
To cheer our fainting soul;
The feast of comfort, Lord,
And peace, to make us whole:
For we are sick of tears,
The useless tears we shed;
Now give us comfort, Lord,
To be our daily bread.
Give us our daily bread,
The bread of angels, Lord,
By us, so many times,
Broken, betrayed, adored:
His body and His blood—
The feast that Jesus spread:
Give Him—our life, our all—
To be our daily bread!