Readings for Wednesday 3rd Week in Ordinary Time

Year 1

First Reading
Heb 12:4-7, 11-15

The Lord disciplines those he loves.

A reading from the Letter to the Hebrews

Brothers and sisters:
In your struggle against sin
   you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children:
   My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
      or lose heart when reproved by him;
   for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
      he scourges every son he acknowledges.

Endure your trials as “discipline”;
God treats you as his sons.
For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?
At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,
   yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness
   to those who are trained by it.

So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.
Make straight paths for your feet,
   that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed.

Strive for peace with everyone,
   and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
See to it that no one be deprived of the grace of God,
   that no bitter root spring up and cause trouble,
   through which many may become defiled.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 103:1-2, 13-14, 17-18a

R. :

R. (see 17) The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
   and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
   and forget not all his benefits.

R. The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.

As a father has compassion on his children,
   so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him,
For he knows how we are formed;
   he remembers that we are dust.
 
R. The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.

But the kindness of the LORD is from eternity
   to eternity toward those who fear him,
And his justice toward children’s children
   among those who keep his covenant.

R. The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.

Year 2

First Reading
2 Sm 7:4-17

I will raise up your heir after you and I will make his Kingdom firm.

A reading from the first Book of Samuel

That night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said:
“Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD:
   Should you build me a house to dwell in?
I have not dwelt in a house
   from the day on which I led the children of Israel
   out of Egypt to the present,
   but I have been going about in a tent under cloth.
In all my wanderings everywhere among the children of Israel,
   did I ever utter a word to any one of the judges
   whom I charged to tend my people Israel, to ask:
   Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’

“Now then, speak thus to my servant David,
   ‘The LORD of hosts has this to say:
   It was I who took you from the pasture
   and from the care of the flock
   to be commander of my people Israel.
I have been with you wherever you went,
   and I have destroyed all your enemies before you.
And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth.
I will fix a place for my people Israel;
   I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place
   without further disturbance.
Neither shall the wicked continue to afflict them as they did of old,
   since the time I first appointed judges over my people Israel.
I will give you rest from all your enemies.
The LORD also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you.
And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,
   I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins,
   and I will make his Kingdom firm.
It is he who shall build a house for my name.
And I will make his royal throne firm forever.
I will be a father to him,
   and he shall be a son to me.
And if he does wrong,
   I will correct him with the rod of men
   and with human chastisements;
   but I will not withdraw my favor from him
   as I withdrew it from your predecessor Saul,
   whom I removed from my presence.
Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me;
   your throne shall stand firm forever.’”

Nathan reported all these words and this entire vision to David.


Responsorial Psalm
Ps 89:4-5, 27-28, 29-30

R. :

R. (29a) For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.

“I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
   I have sworn to David my servant:
I will make your dynasty stand forever
   and establish your throne through all ages.”

R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.

“He shall cry to me, ‘You are my father,
   my God, the Rock that brings me victory!’
I myself make him firstborn,
   Most High over the kings of the earth.”

R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.

“Forever I will maintain my love for him;
   my covenant with him stands firm.
I will establish his dynasty forever,
   his throne as the days of the heavens.”

R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.


Gospel Acclamation

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

The seed is the Word of God, Christ is the sower;
all who come to him will live for ever.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.


Gospel
Mk 4:1-20

A sower went out to sow.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark

On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea.
A very large crowd gathered around him
   so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down.
And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.
And he taught them at length in parables,
   and in the course of his instruction he said to them,
   “Hear this! A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
   and the birds came and ate it up.
Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.
And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it
   and it produced no grain.
And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.
It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”
He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”

And when he was alone,
   those present along with the Twelve
   questioned him about the parables.
He answered them,
   “The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.
But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that
   they may look and see but not perceive,
      and hear and listen but not understand,
      in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.

Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable?
Then how will you understand any of the parables?
The sower sows the word.
These are the ones on the path where the word is sown.
As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once
   and takes away the word sown in them.
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who,
   when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.
But they have no roots; they last only for a time.
Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
   they quickly fall away.
Those sown among thorns are another sort.
They are the people who hear the word,
   but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches,
   and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word,
   and it bears no fruit.
But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it
   and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

At the end of the Gospel, the Deacon, or the Priest, acclaims:

The Gospel of the Lord.

All reply:

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Then he kisses the book, saying quietly:

Through the words of the Gospel
may our sins be wiped away.


Homilies / Gospel Reflections



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