AUGUST 7 Mon Weekday [St Sixtus II, and Companions, St Cajetan].     Nm 11:4b-15/Mt 14:13-21                                                                               8 Tue St Dominic Nm 12:1-13/Mt 14:22-36 or 15:1-2, 10-14                       9 Wed Weekday [St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross] Nm 13:1-2, 25—14:1, 26-29a, 34-35/Mt 15:21-28                                                                          10 Thu St Lawrence 2 Cor 9:6-10/Jn 12:24-26                                           11 Fri St Clare Dt 4:32-40/Mt 16:24-28                                                            12 Sat Weekday [St Jane Frances de ChantaL BVM].Dt 6:4-13/Mt 17:14-20                                                                                    13 19TH SUNDAY 1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a/Rom 9:1-5/Mt 14:22-27

The first readings this week, from the Book of Numbers and the Book of Deuteronomy,  describe the journey of the Israelites to the Promised Land led by Moses. Not an easy journey, not an easy people. Moses faces their grumbling, their jealousies, their doubt. 

The Gospel readings this week from Matthew, chapters 14-17 offer his first account of the miracle of the loaves and fish, the cure of the daughter of the Canaanite woman, the miracle of the storm at sea, and the confession of faith led by Peter. Matthew follows Mark’s narrative but softens Mark’s picture of the disciples and is less harsh on them for their unbelief.  

St. Lawrence and St. Clare are two important saints celebrated this week. Edith Stein, Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was a Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism, entered the Carmelites and was killed in a German concentration camp during the  2nd World War.