FIRST
READING: Numbers
11: 4 - 15
4
For a mixt multitude of people, that came up with them, burned with
desire, sitting and weeping, the children of Israel also being joined
with them, and said: Who shall give us flesh to eat?
5
We remember the Ash that we ate in Egypt free cost: the cucumbers
come into our mind, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions,
and the garlic.
6
Our soul is dry, our eyes behold nothing else but manna.
7
A Now the manna was like coriander seed, of the colour of bdellium.
8
And the people went about, and gathering it, ground it in a mill, or
beat it in a mortar, and boiled it in a pot, and made cakes thereof
of the taste of bread tempered with oil.
9
And when the dew fell in the night upon the camp, the manna also fell
with it.
10
Now Moses heard the people weeping by their families, every one at
the door of his tent. And the wrath of the Lord was exceedingly
enkindled: to Moses also the thing seemed insupportable.
11
And he said to the Lord: Why hast thou afflicted thy servant?
wherefore do I not find favour before thee? and why hast thou laid
the weight of all this people upon me?
12
Have I conceived all this multitude, or begotten them, that thou
shouldst say to me: Carry them in thy bosom as the nurse is wont to
carry the little infant, and bear them into the land, for which thou
hast sworn to their fathers?
13
Whence should I have flesh to give to so great a multitude? they weep
against me, saying: Give us flesh that we may eat.
14
I am not able alone to bear all this people, because it is too heavy
for me.
15
But if it seem unto thee otherwise, I beseech thee to kill me, and
let me find grace in thy eyes, that I be not afflicted with so great
evils.
PSALM:
Psalms 81:
12 - 17
12
But my people heard not my voice: and Israel hearkened not to me.
13
So I let them go according to the desires of their heart: they shall
walk in their own inventions.
14
If my people had heard me: if Israel had walked in my ways:
15
I should soon have humbled their enemies, and laid my hand on them
that troubled them.
16
The enemies of the Lord have lied to him: and their time shall be for
ever.
17
And he fed them with the fat of wheat, and filled them with honey out
of the rock.
GOSPEL:
Matthew 14:
13 - 21
13
Which when Jesus had heard, he retired from thence by boat, into a
desert place apart, and the multitudes having heard of it, followed
him on foot out of the cities.
14
And he coming forth saw a great multitude, and had compassion on
them, and healed their sick.
15
And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying: This is a
desert place, and the hour is now past: send away the multitudes,
that going into the towns, they may buy themselves victuals.
16
But Jesus said to them, They have no need to go: give you them to
eat.
17
They answered him: We have not here, but five loaves, and two fishes.
18
He said to them: Bring them hither to me.
19
And when he had commanded the multitudes to sit down upon the grass,
he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven,
he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the
disciples to the multitudes.
20
And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up what
remained, twelve full baskets of fragments.
21
And the number of them that did eat, was five thousand men, besides
women and children.
