First Reading
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Read this as the first big movement of the day. Notice what God is doing, who is speaking, and what part of the story or teaching should stay with you.
1And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:
2This month shall be to you the beginning of months: it shall be the first in the months of the year.
3Speak you to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, and say to them: On the tenth day of this month let every man take a lamb by their families and houses.
4But if the number be less than may suffice to eat the lamb, he shall take to him his neighbour that joineth to his house, according to the number of souls which may be enough to eat the lamb.
5And it shall be a lamb without blemish, a male, of one year: according to which rite also you shall take a kid.
6And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month: and the whole crowd of the children of Israel shall sacrifice it in the evening.
7And they shall take of the blood thereof, and put it upon both the side posts, and on the upper door posts of the houses, in which they shall eat it.
8And they shall eat the flesh that night roasted at the fire, and unleavened bread with wild lettuce.
11And thus you shall eat it: you shall gird your reins, and you shall have shoes on your feet, holding staves in your hands, and you shall eat in haste: for it is the Phase (that is the Passage) of the Lord.
12And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast: and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.
13And the blood shall be to you for a sign in the houses where you shall be: and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you: and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt.
14And this day shall be for a memorial to you: and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord in your generations with an eternal observance.