God's Bread

And Jesus going out saw a great multitude: and he had compassion on them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came to him, saying: This is a desert place, and the hour is now past: Send them away, that going into the next villages and towns, they may buy themselves meat to eat. And he answering said to them: Give you them to eat. And they said to him: Let us go and buy bread for two hundred pence, and we will give them to eat. And he saith to them: How many loaves have you? go and see. And when they knew, they say: Five, and two fishes And he commanded them that they should make them all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves, and the two fishes: looking up to heaven, he blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave to his disciples to set before them: and the two fishes he divided among them all. And they all did eat, and had their fill. And they took up the leavings, twelve full baskets of fragments, and of the fishes. And they that did eat, were five thousand men.
Mark 6:34-44 (Douay-Rheims Bible)

Prayer Reflection

Dear Father your Son did a great thing for the many people who came to him to hear what he had to say and to be healed of their infirmities. But he also had the grace to know that they needed food to keep up their strength. It is amazing that the disciples thought about sending the people off to find their own food. And to top it off they thought about the cost. But dear Father your Son gave us something very special, proof that you would take care of their needs. Jesus prayed over the bread and fish and look what was done for those who were there. They had food to eat, mind you without cost or them having to leave. Jesus took care of them. From his example we feed the many who come to eat at the Liturgy of the Eucharist. But in our own lives we too are also like the disciples, we often send people on their way to some other place to eat and we tend to think about what it would cost us to feed others. Pretty sad that we often exclude others because they don't fit in or can't do for themselves so we often look away. But there is hope for those who believe, because God takes care of us even when those who can often look away.