August 4th, 2025, Memorial of St. John Viani, priest.

A reading from the book of Numbers.

The children of Israel lamented,

Would that we had meat for food.

We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt,

and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic. But now we are famished.

We see nothing before us but this manna. Manna was like coriander seed and had the color of resin.

When they had gone about and gathered it up, the people would grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar,

then cook it in a pot and make it into loaves, which tasted like cakes made with oil.

At night, when the dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell.

When Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of

their tents, so that the Lord became very angry, he was grieved. Why do you treat your servants so

badly, Moses asked the Lord? Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people? Was it I who

conceived all this people? Or was it I who gave them birth, that you tell me to carry them at my bosom,

like a foster father carrying an infant to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers. Where can I get meat

to give to all this people? For they are crying to me, give us meat for our food. I cannot carry all

this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you will deal with me,

then please do me the favor of killing me at once

so that I need no longer face this distress.

The word of the Lord.

The responseorial Psalm.

The response is,

...