First reading
Elijah went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”
Then Elijah lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an Angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again.
The Angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” Elijah got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mountain of God.