First Reading

Reading from the Acts of the Apostles

Acts 6:8-15

In those days, Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

Some Jews from the synagogue called «of the Freedmen,» from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and Asia, began to argue with Stephen; but they could not refute the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.

Then they bribed some men to say: «We have heard this man blaspheme against Moses and against God.»

They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; they fell upon Stephen, seized him by surprise, and brought him before the Sanhedrin. There they presented false witnesses, who said: «This man never stops speaking against the holy place of the temple and against the law. We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the holy place and change the traditions we received from Moses.»

The members of the Sanhedrin looked at Stephen, and his face appeared to them as radiant as that of an angel.

Gospel

Reading from the holy Gospel according to Saint John

John 6:22-29

After the multiplication of the loaves, when Jesus had fed five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the lake. The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the lake realized that only one boat had been there and that Jesus had not gotten into the boat with his disciples, but that they had left alone. Other boats from Tiberias came to the place where the crowd had eaten the bread. When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him: «Rabbi, when did you get here?» Jesus answered them: «Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.»

So they said to him, «What can we do to accomplish the works of God?» Jesus answered and said to them, «This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.»