February 20th, 2005, Thursday of the sixth week in ordinary time.

A reading from the book of Genesis.

God bless Noah and his sons and said to them,

Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.

Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the

air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea.

Into your power they are delivered.

Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat.

I give them all to you, as I did the green plants.

Only flesh, with its lifeblood still in it, you shall not eat.

For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting.

From every animal I will demand it,

and from one man in regard to his fellow man, I will

demand an accounting for human life. If anyone sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood

be shed, for in the image of God has man been made. Be fertile, then, and multiply, abound on earth and subdue it.

God said to Noah and to his sons with him,

See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you,

and with every living creature that was with you,

all the birds and the various tame and wild animals that were with you

and came out of the ark. I will establish my covenant with you that never again shall all bodily

creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood. There shall not be another flood to devastate the earth.

God added,

...