+Lord, open our lips. And we shall praise your holy name.
We celebrate the memorial of your Death and Resurrection, Lord, and we offer you the Bread of life and the Chalice of salvation. We give you thanks that you have held us worthy to stand in your presence and minister to you.
Please give us this day our daily bread, which is the Bread of Life come down to us from heaven. Amen.
Then the LORD said to Moses: I am going to rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not.
On the sixth day, however, when they prepare what they bring in, let it be twice as much as they gather on the other days.
So Moses and Aaron told all the Israelites, “At evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt;
and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, when he hears your grumbling against him. But who are we that you should grumble against us?”
And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening and in the morning your fill of bread, and hears the grumbling you utter against him, who then are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the LORD.”
Then Moses said to Aaron, “Tell the whole Israelite community: Approach the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.”
But while Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they turned in the direction of the wilderness, and there the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud!
The LORD said to Moses:
I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them: In the evening twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will have your fill of bread, and then you will know that I, the LORD, am your God.
In the evening, quail came up and covered the camp. In the morning there was a layer of dew all about the camp, and when the layer of dew evaporated, fine flakes were on the surface of the wilderness, fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground. On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?” for they did not know what it was.
But Moses told them, “It is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat."
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Reflection:
Jesus, you gave Moses and the Israelites manna while they waited in the wilderness to enter the Promised Land. Every morning the dew would evaporate and bread would be left behind, and the Israelites would eat until they were full. This bread satisfied the physical hunger of our spiritual ancestors and every day you would bless them in this way.
But, the daily bread that you give to us in the Eucharist is the eternal bread that has come down from heaven. It does not perish. Rather it is the source of all life.
Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of this daily bread. Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of the Bread of Life.
Closing Prayer:
Jesus, thank you for sending down like the dewfall your Spirit upon the gifts of bread and wine so that they may become your precious Body and Blood. With thankful hearts, we pray:
Our Father...
Lord, bless us, keep us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.+
