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Gospel: John 6:1-15
Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
“Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little.”
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?”
Jesus said, “Have the people recline.”
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
“Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted.”
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
“This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.”
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (pronounced Gon-ja Boya-jew) was an ordinary child. Her father died when she was nine, leaving her mother to raise three children alone.
Although they were by no means wealthy, her mother taught her an important lesson from a very early age: never eat a single meal unless you are sharing it with others. For that reason, the family often invited the poorest in the city to dine with them.
Such a formative lesson stuck with Agnes for the rest of her life. Little did she know then that she’d start a global movement, turning the world’s attention to the poorest among us.
In 1937, Agnes took her final religious vows, becoming the person we all know now as Mother Teresa.
Mother Teresa never did anything extraordinary; she fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and comforted the dying.
But when she offered her life – her five loaves and two fish – to the Lord, she changed the world.
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The same message is given in today’s Gospel.
A young boy offers Jesus his five loaves and two fish. In itself, that’s enough to feed a few people. But when placed in the hands of Christ, it becomes enough to feed thousands.
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When we offer our lives to God, anything is possible.
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