After the closing of Noe's Ark. God sent the rain in torrents upon the earth. For forty days and forty nights heavy rain fell and flooded the land.After the closing of Noe's Ark. God sent the rain in torrents upon the earth. For forty days and forty nights heavy rain fell and flooded the land.
The waters rose higher and higher till even the mountains were covered. Every living thing - bird, beast and man - was drowned. All living things died except those who were in the Ark.
After forty days the rain stopped, but the waters remained on the earth for one hundred and fifty days. Then a wind blew over the earth. and the flood went down. The waters sank away from the earth, until one day the Ark stood still. It had come to rest on the top of a mountain.
Noe waited forty days. Then he opened the window of the Ark and sent out a raven. The raven flew back and forth over the waters, but did not return to the Ark.
Then Noe sent out a dove. Finding no place on which to alight, the dove returned to the Ark. After another week. Noe again sent out the dove. In the evening it returned with a green olive branch in its beak. By this Noe knew that the waters were leaving the earth.
After one more week, Noe sent forth the dove a third time. It did not return, and Noe knew that the waters were no longer covering the earth. And so Noe with his wife, his sons, their families, and all living creatures went forth out of the Ark on to the dry land.
Noe was very grateful to God. He built an altar, and upon it offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. God was pleased with Noe and promised, "The waters will never again become a flood to destroy all living things. This is the sign of our agreement: I will put the rainbow in the sky. Whenever the rainbow appears, I will remember My promise."
Then God blessed Noe and all the other creatures that had been saved. He said, "Increase and multiply, and replenish the earth."
The Ark of Noe was the figure of the Catholic Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ, the one place of refuge in which We may find salvation.
- from My Bible History in Pictures, by Bishop Louis LaRavoire Morrow, D.D., 1934; it has the Imprimatur of Archbishop Michael J O'Doherty of Manila, Philippines