August 8, 2003, Memorial of St. Dominic, priest.

A reading from the Book of Numbers.

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on the pretext of the marriage he had contracted with a Kushite woman.

They complained, is it through Moses alone that the Lord speaks?

Does he not speak through us also?

And the Lord heard this. Now Moses himself was by far the meekest man on the face of the earth.

So at once the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, come out you three to the meeting tent,

and the three of them went.

Then the Lord came down in the column of cloud, and standing at the entrance of the tent called Aaron and Miriam. When both came forward, he said, Now listen to the words of the Lord.

Should there be a prophet among you, in visions will I reveal

myself to him. In dreams will I speak to him. Not so with my servant Moses. Throughout my house

he bears my trust. Face to face I speak to him, plainly and not in riddles. The presence of the Lord he beholds.

Why then did you not fear to speak against my servant Moses? So angry was the Lord against

them that when he departed and the cloud withdrew from the tent there was Miriam, a snow-white

leper. When Aaron turned and saw her a leper, he said to Moses,

"'Ah, my Lord, please do not charge us with the sin that we have foolishly committed.

Let her not thus be like the stillborn babe that comes forth from its mother's womb, with its flesh

half consumed. Then Moses cried to the Lord, Please not this, pray, heal her.

The word of the Lord.

The responsorial Psalm.

The response is,

Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

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