Book of Common Prayer

⁶ When they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia, ⁷ they came to the region of Mysia, and sought to go into Bithynia. But the Spirit would not permit them. ⁸ Then they went over Mysia and down to Troas. ⁹ And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: there stood a man from Macedonia who appealed to him, saying, Come into Macedonia and help us! ¹⁰ After he had seen the vision, immediately we prepared to go into Macedonia, persuaded that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. ¹¹ Then we set sail from Troas, and with a straight course went to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis, ¹² and from there to Philippi, which is the chief city in the parts of Macedonia, and a Roman colony.

We were in that city for several days. ¹³ And on the Sabbath days we went out of the city, beside a river where people were accustomed to pray. And we sat down and spoke to the women who gathered there. ¹⁴ And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshipped God, listened to us, and the Lord opened her heart so that she attended to the things that Paul said. ¹⁵ When she was baptized, and her household, she invited us, saying, If you think that I believe on the Lord, come into my house and stay there. And she constrained us.

³⁰ And the apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. ³¹ And he said to them, Come apart into the countryside and rest awhile. For there were so many comers and goers that they had no time so much as to eat. ³² And they went by boat out of the way into an isolated place.

³³ But the people noticed them when they departed, and many recognized him. And they ran there by foot out of all the towns and got there before them, and came together to him. ³⁴ And Jesus went out and saw the crowds of people, and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

³⁵ And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came to him, saying, This is an isolated place, and now the day is far gone. ³⁶ Let the people depart so that they can go into the country round about and into the towns and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. ³⁷ He answered and said to them, You give them to eat. And they said to him, Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them to eat? ³⁸ He said to them, How many loaves do you have? Go and look. And when they had searched, they said, Five, and two fishes.

³⁹ And Jesus directed them to make all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ And they sat down here a row and there a row, by hundreds and by fifties. ⁴¹ And he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to put before the people. And he divided the two fishes among them all. ⁴² And they all did eat and were satisfied. ⁴³ And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments and of the fishes. ⁴⁴ And those who ate were about 5,000 men.

⁴⁵ And straightaway he made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead over the water to Bethsaida while he sent the people away. ⁴⁶ And as soon as he had sent them away, he went apart to a mountain to pray.