Bread of heaven

“ Yet they furnished you, even there, with bread and wine in abundance. I expressed my sorrow at seeing you in missery, and you replied, 'As long as God reigns in heaven here I must remain [1] , for I have merited it. Do you then rise up quickly, and eat all the bread, since you will see neither me nor my companion again.' I complied with your wishes; arose, and eat the bread [2] ."
APPLICATION.
My beloved, the Saracens and Jews; the rich and powerful; and finally, the perfect among men, are typified by the three companions. The bread, represents the kingdom of heaven [3] . ”

“ The nutritive virtue of bread is the Word of God. If God should withdraw it, then all flesh and blood would wither and decay as a flower, or as the grass of the field. Therefore, man doth not live by bread alone. ”

“ Wheat, or bread, is, in the outer world of nature, what good is in the inner world of spirit. And as well in the winter night of trial and adversity is bread grown, as in the winter of external nature. The bright wine of truth we crush from purple clusters in genial autumn; but bread grows even while the vine slumbers. ”

“ So that bread is a universal food, and seems to contain in it all the nutritive qualities of every other sort of food, all of which borrow their virtues from it; as the planets derive their light from the universal luminary, the sun. And this we may conceive to be the reason of the great virtue there is in bread, that, being the most common and ordinary food, every man might find in it wherewithal to support life, though he should have nothing else. In a word, whatever we eat or drink, ought to be looked upon as a miracle of divine wisdom and goodness. ”