Matthew 5:11
11 “People will insult you and hurt you. They will lie and say all kinds of evil things about you because you follow me. But when they do that, know that great blessings belong to you. 12 Be happy about it. Be very glad because you have a great reward waiting for you in heaven. People did these same bad things to the prophets who lived before you.
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Catholic Reading 1, Numbers 11:4-15
4 The rabble who had joined the people were feeling the pangs of hunger, and the Israelites began to weep again. ‘Who will give us meat to eat?’ they said.
5 ‘Think of the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic!
6 But now we are withering away; there is nothing wherever we look except this manna!’
7 The manna was like coriander seed and had the appearance of bdellium.
8 The people went round gathering it, and ground it in a mill or crushed it with a pestle; it was then cooked in a pot and made into pancakes. It tasted like cake made with oil.
9 When the dew fell on the camp at night-time, the manna fell with it.
10 Moses heard the people weeping, each family at the door of its tent. Yahweh’s anger was greatly aroused; Moses too found it disgraceful,
11 and he said to Yahweh: ‘Why do you treat your servant so badly? In what respect have I failed to win your favour, for you to lay the burden of all these people on me?
12 Was it I who conceived all these people, was I their father, for you to say to me, “Carry them in your arms, like a foster-father carrying an unweaned child, to the country which I swore to give their fathers”?
13 Where am I to find meat to give all these people, pestering me with their tears and saying, “Give us meat to eat”?
14 I cannot carry all these people on my own; the weight is too much for me.
15 If this is how you mean to treat me, please kill me outright! If only I could win your favour and be spared the sight of my misery!’
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 81:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
12 So I left them to their stubborn selves, to follow their own devices.
13 ‘If only my people would listen to me, if only Israel would walk in my ways,
14 at one stroke I would subdue their enemies, turn my hand against their opponents.
15 ‘Those who hate Yahweh would woo his favour, though their doom was sealed for ever,
16 while I would feed him on pure wheat, would give you your fill of honey from the rock.’
Gospel, Matthew 14:13-21
13 When Jesus received this news he withdrew by boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves. But the crowds heard of this and, leaving the towns, went after him on foot.
14 So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them and healed their sick.
15 When evening came, the disciples went to him and said, ‘This is a lonely place, and time has slipped by; so send the people away, and they can go to the villages to buy themselves some food.’
16 Jesus replied, ‘There is no need for them to go: give them something to eat yourselves.’
17 But they answered, ‘All we have with us is five loaves and two fish.’
18 So he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’
19 He gave orders that the people were to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing. And breaking the loaves he handed them to his disciples, who gave them to the crowds.
20 They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected the scraps left over, twelve baskets full.
21 Now about five thousand men had eaten, to say nothing of women and children.
Scriptures for meditation
2 Chronicles 20:1-27
Jehoshaphat Faces War
20 Later, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and some Meunites[a] came to start a war with Jehoshaphat. 2 Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, “There is a large army coming against you from Edom. They are coming from the other side of the Dead Sea. They are already in Hazazon Tamar!” (Hazazon Tamar is also called En Gedi.) 3 Jehoshaphat became afraid, and he decided to ask the Lord what to do. He announced a time of fasting for everyone in Judah. 4 The people of Judah came together to ask the Lord for help. They came from out of all the towns of Judah to ask for the Lord’s help. 5 Jehoshaphat was in the new courtyard of the Lord’s Temple. He stood up in the meeting of the people from Judah and Jerusalem 6 and said,
“Lord God of our ancestors, you are the God in heaven. You rule over all the kingdoms in all the nations. You have power and strength. No one can stand against you. 7 You are our God! You forced the people living in this land to leave. You did this in front of your people Israel. You gave this land to the descendants of Abraham forever. Abraham was your friend. 8 His descendants lived in this land, and built a Temple for your name. 9 They said, ‘If trouble comes to us—the sword, punishment, sicknesses, or famine—we will stand in front of this Temple and in front of you. Your name is on this Temple. We will shout to you when we are in trouble. Then you will hear and save us.’
10 “But now, here are men from Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir. You would not let the Israelites enter their lands when they came out of Egypt.[b] So the Israelites turned away and didn’t destroy them. 11 But see the kind of reward those people give us for not destroying them. They have come to force us out of your land that you gave to us. 12 Our God, punish those people. We don’t have the strength to stop this large army that is coming against us. We don’t know what to do! We are looking to you for help.”[c]
13 All the men of Judah stood before the Lord with their wives, babies, and children. 14 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jahaziel son of Zechariah. (Zechariah was the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah.) Jahaziel was a Levite from the family of Asaph. In the middle of the meeting, 15 Jahaziel said, “Listen to me King Jehoshaphat and everyone living in Judah and Jerusalem! The Lord says this to you: ‘Don’t be afraid or worry about this large army, because the battle is not your battle. It is God’s battle! 16 Tomorrow, they will come up through the Ziz Pass. You must go down to them. You will find them at the end of the valley on the other side of the desert of Jeruel. 17 You will not have to fight this battle. Just stand there and watch the Lord save you. Judah and Jerusalem, don’t be afraid. Don’t worry, because the Lord is with you. So go out to stand against those people tomorrow.’”
18 Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground. And all the people of Judah and Jerusalem bowed down before the Lord and worshiped him. 19 The Levites from the Kohath family groups and the Korah family stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. They sang very loudly.
20 Early the next morning, Jehoshaphat’s army went out into the desert of Tekoa. As they marched out, Jehoshaphat stood there saying, “Listen to me, men of Judah and Jerusalem. Have faith in the Lord your God, and you will stand strong! Have faith in his prophets, and you will succeed!”
21 Jehoshaphat encouraged the men and gave them instructions. Then he had the Temple singers stand up in their special clothes to praise the Lord. They marched in front of the army and sang,
“Give thanks to the Lord!
His faithful love will last forever.”
22 As they began to sing and to praise God, the Lord set an ambush for the army from Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir who had come to attack Judah. The enemy was defeated! 23 The Ammonites and the Moabites started to fight the men from Mount Seir. After they killed them, the Ammonites and Moabites turned on themselves and killed each other.
24 The men from Judah arrived at the lookout point in the desert. They looked for the enemy’s large army, but all they saw were dead bodies lying on the ground. There were no survivors. 25 Jehoshaphat and his army came to take things from the bodies. They found many animals, riches, clothes, and other valuable things. It was more than Jehoshaphat and his men could carry away. There was so much that they spent three days taking everything from the dead bodies. 26 On the fourth day Jehoshaphat and his army met in the Valley of Beracah.[d] They praised the Lord. That is why people still call that place, “The Valley of Beracah.”
27 All the men from Judah and Jerusalem were very happy as they marched back to Jerusalem with Jehoshaphat in the front. The Lord made them very happy when he defeated their enemy. 28 They entered Jerusalem with lyres, harps, and trumpets and went to the Temple of the Lord.
Numbers 13:30-33
30 Caleb told the people near Moses to be quiet. Then Caleb said, “We should go up and take that land for ourselves. We can easily take that land.”
31 But the men who had gone with him said, “We cannot fight those people! They are much stronger than we are.” 32 So those men gave a report that discouraged the people. They said, “The land we saw is full of strong people. They are strong enough to easily defeat anyone who goes there. 33 We saw the giant Nephilim people there! (The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim.) We felt like little grasshoppers. Yes, we were like grasshoppers to them!”
Thurzo Gizella Bible Study 
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