Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time (II)

Official Translation

Reading 1 – 2 Samuel 11.1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17

At the turn of the year,
at the time when kings go out,
David sent Joab, and his servants with him,
and all Israel;
and they destroyed the children of Ammon,
and besieged Rabbah.
But David stayed at Jerusalem.

At evening, David arose from his bed
and walked on the roof of the king’s house.
From the roof, he saw a woman bathing;
and the woman was very beautiful to look at.
David sent and inquired after the woman.
Someone said, “Is not this Bathsheba,
the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
David sent messengers, and took her;
She came to him, and he lay with her
Then she returned to her house.
The woman conceived;
and she sent and told David,
and said, “I am with child.”

David sent to Joab,
“Send me Uriah the Hittite.”
Joab sent Uriah to David.
When Uriah had come to him,
David asked him how Joab did,
and how the people fared,
and how the war prospered.
David said to Uriah,
“Go down to your house,
and wash your feet.”
Uriah departed out of the king’s house,
and a gift from the king was sent after him.
But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house
with all the servants of his lord,
and did not go down to his house.

When they had told David, saying,
“Uriah did not go down to his house,”
David called him on the next day,
he ate and drink before David;
and he made him drunk.
At evening, he went out to lie on his bed
with the servants of his lord,
but did not go down to his house.
In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab,
and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
He wrote in the letter, saying,
“Send Uriah to the forefront
of the heaviest battle,
and draw back from him,
that he may be struck, and die.”
When Joab kept watch on the city,
he assigned Uriah to the place
where he knew that valiant men were.
The men of the city went out,
and fought with Joab.
Some of the people fell,
of the officers of David;
and Uriah the Hittite died also.

Responsorial – Psalm 51.3-4, 5-6a, 6bcd-7, 10-11 Resp. 3a

R. Have mercy, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness.
According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
Cleanse me from my sin.

R. Have mercy, O Lord, for we have sinned.

For I know my transgressions.
My sin is constantly before me.
Against you, and you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight;

R. Have mercy, O Lord, for we have sinned.

I have done what is evil in your sight;
that you may be proved right when you speak,
and justified when you judge.
Behold, I was born in iniquity.
A sinner, as my mother conceived me.

R. Have mercy, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Let me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all of my iniquities.

R. Have mercy, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Gospel – Mark 4.26-34

Jesus said to the crowds,
“The Kingdom of God is
like when a human
casts seed on the earth,
and sleeps and rises
night and day,
and the seed springs up and grows,
they know not how.
For the earth bears fruit:
first the blade, then the ear,
then the full grain in the ear.
But when the fruit is ripe,
immediately they put in the sickle,
because the harvest has come.”

He said, “To what will we compare
the Kingdom of God?
Or with what parable will we illustrate it?
It is like a grain of mustard seed,
which, when it is sown in the earth,
is smaller than the other seeds
that are on the earth,
yet when it is sown, grows up,
and becomes greater than all the plants,
and puts out great branches,
so that the birds of the sky
can lodge under its shadow.”
With many such parables
he spoke the word to them,
as they were able to hear it.
Without a parable he did not speak to them;
but privately to his own disciples
he explained everything.

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