The High Priest said:
‘Are these things true?’
He said:
‘Brothers and fathers, listen.’
The God of glory appeared to our father, Abraham
being in Mesopotamia
before he lived in Haran.
And he said to him:
Go out from your country and
from your relatives, and
come away to the land
which I will show you. 1
Then going out from the land of the Chaldeans
he settled in Haran.
After the death of his father
he settled him in this country
in which we now live.
And he did not give to him
a property in it –
not even a foothold
– he promised
to give it to him
as a possession
and to his seed after him;2
(Abraham) not having any children.
But God spoke like this:
His seed will be like a stranger
in a land belonging to another,
and they will enslave him,
and they will mistreat him
for four hundred years.
And the nation which enslaves him, I myself will judge.
God said
And after these things they will come out3
and worship me in this place.
And he gave him a covenant of circumcision.
And in this way he fathered Isaac
and he circumcised him on the eighth day
and Isaac, Jacob
and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs.
Lord God,,
you feed us with the living bread from heaven;
you renew our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love.
Teach us to hunger
for Christ who is the true and living bread,
and to live by every word
that comes from your mouth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.