Readings for Wednesday 4th 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. :

℟. (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.

℟. 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.
 
℟. 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.

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

Year 2

First Reading
2 Sam 24:2, 9-17

It is I who have sinned; but these are sheep; what have they done?

A reading from the second Book of Samuel

King David said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him,
   “Tour all the tribes in Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba
   and register the people, that I may know their number.”
Joab then reported to the king the number of people registered:
   in Israel, eight hundred thousand men fit for military service;
   in Judah, five hundred thousand.

Afterward, however, David regretted having numbered the people,
   and said to the LORD:
   “I have sinned grievously in what I have done.
But now, LORD, forgive the guilt of your servant,
   for I have been very foolish.”
When David rose in the morning,
   the LORD had spoken to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying:
   “Go and say to David, ‘This is what the LORD says:
   I offer you three alternatives;
   choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you.’”
Gad then went to David to inform him.
He asked: “Do you want a three years’ famine to come upon your land,
   or to flee from your enemy three months while he pursues you,
   or to have a three days’ pestilence in your land?
Now consider and decide what I must reply to him who sent me.”
David answered Gad: “I am in very serious difficulty.
Let us fall by the hand of God, for he is most merciful;
   but let me not fall by the hand of man.”
Thus David chose the pestilence.
Now it was the time of the wheat harvest
   when the plague broke out among the people.
The LORD then sent a pestilence over Israel
   from morning until the time appointed,
   and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba died.
But when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it,
   the LORD regretted the calamity
   and said to the angel causing the destruction among the people,
   “Enough now! Stay your hand.”
The angel of the LORD was then standing
   at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
When David saw the angel who was striking the people,
   he said to the LORD: “It is I who have sinned;
   it is I, the shepherd, who have done wrong.
But these are sheep; what have they done?
Punish me and my kindred.”


Responsorial Psalm
Ps:32:1-2, 5, 6, 7

R. :

R. (see 5c) Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
   whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
   in whose spirit there is no guile.

R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
   my guilt I covered not.
I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,”
   and you took away the guilt of my sin.

R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

For this shall every faithful man pray to you
   in time of stress.
Though deep waters overflow,
   they shall not reach him.

R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me;
   with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round.

R. Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.


Gospel Acclamation
Jn 10:27

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them and they know me.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.


Gospel
Mk 6:1-6

A prophet is not without honor except in his native place.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place,
   accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
   and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
   and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
   “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
   and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
   apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.

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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