our lord jesus christ and the love of god in the communion of the holy spirit and with your spirit my sisters my brothers let this acknowledge our sins and so prepare ourselves and celebrate the sacred mysteries into that desert of sin which is between a limb and sinai on the th day of the nd month after the departure from the land of egypt here in the desert the whole assembly of the children of israel rumbled against moses and aaron the children of israel said to them would that we had died at the lord's hand and in the land of egypt as we sat fire flesh pots and ate our fill of bread but you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine then the lord said to moses i will now rain down bread from heaven for you each day the people are to go out gather their daily portion thus i will test them to see whether they follow my instructions or not on the th day however when they prepare what they bring in let it be twice as when aaron announces to the whole assembly of the children of israel they turned toward the desert and lo the glory of the lord appeared in the cloud the lord spoke to moses and said i have heard the grumbling of the children of israel tell them in the evening twilight you shall eat flesh and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread so that you may know that i the lord am your god in the evening quail came up and covered the camp in the morning and do away all about the camp and when the dew evaporated there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground on seeing if the children visit real asked one another what is this where they did not know what it was but mos told them this is the bread which the lord has given you to eat the word of the lord thanks be to god the lord gave them bread from heaven the lord gave them red meat from heaven they tempted god in their hearts by demanding the food they crave yes they spoke against god saying in gods but a table in the desert the lord lord gave them bread heaven yes he commanded the skies above the doors of heaven he opened the rain manna upon them for food and gave them heavenly bread the lord for he gave them bread from heaven the lord be with you reading from the holy gospel according to matthe and that day jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down and the whole crowd stood along the shore and he spoke to them once because the soil was not deep and when the sun rose it was scorch and it withered for lack of groups some seeds fell among thorns in the thorns grew and choked it but some seeds fell on certainly some words even evoke a picture in our minds and today the word that i'm thinking of is desert and if we think about it  our immediate reaction is something very very dry and sterile something with valve knowledge of life to it something that should be avoided something that should be put aside and not be part wretched desert where there's no food there's no life everything is hot it's too difficult to be here and yet because is that grumbling is because of the great love of god for his own people at night and so even though the desert was such a uninviting and wretched places for the people concerned it gave god the opportunity to take care of his people and to show them something very important to crist a catholic of a different right that's a roman right that the maronite right he was from lebanon which is where he lived in died and the people all of the people of lebanon whether they're christians or muslims the opportunity of the solitude of the desert to bring him to christ and eventually to make him a saint so today in thinking about this concept of the desert something that is unprofitable and something that we certainly would avoid we have two wonderful examples in the scriptures in the life of the saints of taking advantage even of something that's very difficult and very unappealing whole question of it says if we in our own lives look at opportunities for getting closer to god we don't go to the desert we can just understand that sometimes we embrace difficulty in our lives and make something good out of the difficulties that can get us closer to god it worked that way for the people of israel worked that way for st charles in the name of the father of the son of the holy spirit we can to bring happiness and holding this to our family we pray to the board lord hear our prayer we pray for those who work for the defense of human life those who work with justice those who work for peace that god may bless their labors we prayed to the arrangements with each other we pray to the lord lord hear our prayer and in the silence of our own hearts that each of us add our own particular intention we pray for american military throughout the world especially in afghanistan we praise the lord or tear our prayer or lord our god we ask you to listen to our prayers we bring them to you in the name of our brother and savior the lord jesus who is with us god for ever and ever and then listen or you lord god of all creation for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you through the earth in the work of human hands it will become for us the bread of life should be god forever the said are you lord god of all creation for three years goodness we have received the wine we offer you fruit of the vine work if human hands will become our spiritual drink what should be god for ever blood wash away money could she my sisters and brothers pray that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to god the almighty father may the lord accept the sacrifice your hands of praise and glory of his name for our good and the good of all this holy church strengthen her by the example of this holy life teacher by his words of preaching and keep her safe in answer to his prayers and so with the company of angels and saints be seeing the him of your praise as without and make us who has a near east side the sacred meal mighty god always follow the example of vested charcoal in serving you with constant devotion and assisting always on hiring charity through