‘The Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground.’
The Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’
The Lord God said to the serpent,
‘Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.’
To the woman he said,
‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.’
And to Adam he said,
‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
“You shall not eat of it”,
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.’
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live for ever’ — therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 90(89):2. 3-4. 5-6. 12-13. ℟1
O Lord, you have been our refuge,
from generation to generation.
Before the mountains were born,
or the earth or the world were brought forth,
you are God, from age to age.
O Lord, you have been our refuge,
from generation to generation.
You turn man back to dust,
and say, ‘Return, O children of Adam.’
To your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday, come and gone,
or like a watch in the night.
O Lord, you have been our refuge,
from generation to generation.
You sweep them away like a dream,
like grass which is fresh in the morning.
In the morning it sprouts and is fresh;
by evening it withers and fades.
O Lord, you have been our refuge,
from generation to generation.
Then teach us to number our days,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Turn back, O Lord! How long?
Show pity to your servants.
O Lord, you have been our refuge,
from generation to generation.
Gospel Acclamation
Matthew 4:4b
Alleluia, alleluia.
One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
Alleluia.
Gospel
Mark 8:1-10
‘They ate and were satisfied.’
In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them, ‘I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.’ And his disciples answered him, ‘How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?’ And he asked them, ‘How many loaves do you have?’ They said, ‘Seven.’ And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
Universalis podcast: The week ahead – from 16 to 22 February
The Book of Proverbs. Wisdom literature in general. "The Creed in Slow Motion" and next weekend's Word on Fire conference. (17 minutes) Episode notes.
The readings on this page are from the English Standard Version, which is used at Mass in Great Britain. The Jerusalem Bible (which is used at Mass in much of the English-speaking world) will appear instead if you set this page to use a calendar from outside Great Britain. The New American Bible readings, which are used at Mass in the United States, are available in the Universalis apps, programs and downloads.