Pastor noster - panem nostrum quotidianum

Research for a booklet presenting the Golden Rosary (Rosarium Aureum) has opened up a fascinating series of etymologies.

Pastor bonus. J-J Tissot

The Introit for today's Mass may serve as an introduction:

Si díligis me, Simon Petre, pasce agnos meos, pasce oves meas. Allelúia, allelúia
If thou lovest me, Simon Peter, feed my lambs, feed my sheep. Allelúja, allelúja.
[John 21:15-17]

This reminded me of the particular text which first sparked my curiosity: (highlights have been added to the excerpted texts below)

[8] Et pastores erant in regione eadem vigilantes, et custodientes vigilias noctis super gregem suum.
[8] And there were in the same country shepherds watching, and keeping the night watches over their flock. [Luke 2]

The entry on pastor in the OED revealed the following:

< Anglo-Norman and Middle French pastour, pastor, pastur shepherd, spiritual leader (12th cent. in Old French; French pasteur ) and its etymon classical Latin pāstor shepherd, person who tends flocks and herds, in post-classical Latin also person who has the spiritual care of a body of Christians (Vetus Latina, Vulgate) < pāst- , past participial stem of pāscere to feed, give pasture to (see pascent adj.) + -or -or suffix.

Logeion has the following:

pāstor, ōris, m.: one who feeds; herdsman, shepherd, (pāscō)
pasco, pāvi, pastum, 3, v. a. and n. root pa-; Sanscr. gō-pas, herdsman; Gr. πατέομαι; cf. pabulum, pastor, Pales, panis; perh. also, Penates, penum, to cause to eat, to feed, pasture.

pābulum, ī, n.: feeding material; food, pasturage, pasture

Păles, is, f. the tutelary deity of shepherds and cattle

pānis, is, m. In gen. plur., panium, [from the root pa, to feed; whence also πάομαι, pabulum, and pasco], bread, a loaf.

penates With Vesta and Lar, the household gods of the Romans; strictly the guardians of the store-room for food (penus) 

penus , ūs and ī, m. and f.: also penus, oris, n. (rel. to penes, Penātēs, penetrō), that which is stored within; the household store of provisions; stores, provisions, viands  Cf pantry

Pān, Pānŏs (acc. Pāna), m., = Πάν, Pan, the god of the woods and of shepherds

From Wiktionary:

penus: From Proto-Italic *penos, from Proto-Indo-European *pén-os (“food”), from *pen-. Compare penes, Lithuanian penė́ti (“to feed”)

From  the Indo-European Etymological Dictionary - Indogermanisches Etymologisches Woerterbuch (JPokorny)

Root / lemma[A lexical item as it is presented, usually in a standardized form, in a dictionary entry; a definiendum.] : pap(p)aEnglish meaning: Daddy; mealGerman meaning: Kinderlallwort for `Vater; Speise'Material: Gr. πάππα Vok., -ου Gen. `Papa', πάπας πατρὸς ὑποκόρισμα, πάππος `grandfather' (out of it lat. pappus), παππίᾱς `Vöterchen', παππάζειν `Papa say'; skyth. Ζεῦς Παπαῖος; lat. pāpa, pappa Kinderlallwort for `dish, food; father', pappō -āre `eat'; nhd. pappen `eat'; pappo (papo), āre, v. a., to eat pap, to eat:
Root / lemma: appaEnglish meaning: fatherGerman meaning: `Vater'; LallwortMaterial: compare gr. ἄππα, ἀπφά, ἄπφα, ἀπφῦς (Theokrit) `dad'; toch. В appakke `father' (this -(a)kke from ammakki `Mutter').References: WP. I 47.

pa/pe and be/be: The sources suggest a root meaning food (grass, hay etc for livestock). Could this also be the root of Bethlehem, usually understood as “house of bread” or “house of meat:” accordingly, “house of food.”

This cursory examination suggests the following reflections:

The pater (father) is chiefly responsible for feeding his family. Similarly, the pastor (shepherd) is responsible for ensuring his sheep and lambs have pasture (food). Abel offered a lamb in sacrifice to his heavenly Father. The patriarch Joseph pastured his sheep near Bethlehem. David, born in Bethlehem, was a shepherd (pastor) watching his flocks nearby. Lambs were offered as sacrifices in the Temple at Jerusalem. One thousand years later, shepherds (pastores) were watching their flocks by night when an angel of the Lord appeared to them; these pastores went straightaway to Bethlehem, the "House of Bread/Flesh/Food". Tradition has it that they offered lambs as gifts. There they saw the chief Shepherd Himself, laid in a "manger" (where food is offered for animals). The baby was later to be identified by His cousin John as the "Lamb of God"; He would call Himself the pastor bonus (the good shepherd). To provide nourishment for His listeners, He multiplied bread in the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. He, the good shepherd, would offer to feed His flock with Himself (St John, chapter 6). At the Last Supper, He offered the first Mass and gave Himself to His Apostles under the form of bread (panis) as they made their first Holy Communion, partaking of the body, blood, soul and divinity of the Word made flesh.

"Baby" ("bébé" etc) derives perhaps from a man's first utterance after birth - "baaa!" (cf vāgĭo, īvi or ĭi, 4, v. n. of young children, to cry, squall) After all, do not  children call lambs "baa lambs" and are not sheep immortalised in nursery rhymes as "Baa baa black sheep"?

What a tightly woven miracle of etymological strands, deserving a lengthier study and showing once again how words all seem to point to the Word: In principio erat Verbum...

Updates
le pain (Fr), el pan (Sp), il pane (It)
pasta,panini (It)
PÂTE nom féminin: xiie siècle, paste. Issu du latin pasta, « pâte (de farine) », emprunté du grec pastê, « bouillie », lui-même tiré de passein, « saupoudrer ».
PÂTÉ nom masculin: xiie siècle, pasté. Dérivé de pâte.