The Fourth Petition

Grant what we need each day in bread and insight, subsistence for the call of growing life.

Give us this day our daily bread.

The Aramaic understanding of subsistence includes both bread for physical life and insight for spiritual life. Watching herons hunt for food is a lesson in single-mindedness. They scan the water intensely focused on their goal. Herons move slowly, if at all, for long periods of time waiting for the opportune moment to catch a meal. They are symbols of focus and purpose.