Food is one of our most basic needs. We can't live for long without it, and when we are in need of it, our bodies let us know with a hunger that can be nearly impossible to ignore. As indispensable as material food is to our physical life, the Eucharist is even more vital to our spiritual life. God saved the Israelites from starvation in the wilderness by providing manna for them. We need the Eucharist even more than the Israelites needed the manna. It sustains and strengthens us for our life's journey. It is, as Monsignor Ronald Knox once said, "the day's food for the day's march."