Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time (II)

Official Translation

Reading 1 – 2 Samuel 7.4-17

It happened that same night,
that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying,
“Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord:
“Shall 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:

I took you from the sheep pen,
from following the sheep,
that you should be prince over my people Israel.
I have been with you wherever you went,
and have cut off all your enemies from before you.
I will make you a great name,
like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.
I will appoint a place for my people Israel,
and will plant them that they may dwell in their own place,
and be moved no more;
nor shall the children of wickedness
afflict them anymore, as at first,
and from the days that I commanded judges
to be over my people Israel.
I will cause you to rest from all your enemies.
Moreover the Lord tells you
that the Lord will make you a house.
When your days are fulfilled,
and you sleep with your fathers,
I will set up your seed after you,
who shall proceed out of your loins,
and I will establish his kingdom.

He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

I will be his father, and he shall be my son.

If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men,
and with the stripes of the children of men;
but my loving kindness will not depart from him,
as I took it from Saul,
whom I put away before you.

Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.
Your throne shall be established forever.”

Nathan spoke to David all these words,
according to all this vision.

Responsorial - Psalm 89.4-5, 27-28, 29-30 Resp. 29a

R. I will make my love for my servant endure forever.

“I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David, my servant,
‘I will establish your offspring forever,
and build up your throne to all generations.’”

R. I will make my love for my servant endure forever.

He will call to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, and the rock of my salvation!’
I will appoint him my firstborn,
the highest of the kings of the earth.

R. I will make my love for my servant endure forever.


I will keep my loving kindness for him forever more.
My covenant will stand firm with him.
I will also make his offspring endure forever,
and his throne as the days of heaven.

R. I will make my love for my servant endure forever.

Gospel – Mark 4.1-20

Again Jesus began to teach by the sea.
A large crowd was gathered to him,
so that he got into a boat on the sea, and sat down.
The whole crowd was on the seashore.
He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching,
“Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow,
and as he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds came and devoured it.
Others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil,
and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil.
When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it,
and it yielded no fruit.
Others fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing.
Some produced thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, and some one-hundred-fold.”
He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

When he was alone, those who were by him along with the Twelve asked him about the parables.
He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of the Kingdom of God,
but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables, that
‘seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand;
lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins be forgiven them.’”

He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable?
How will you understand any of the parables?
The farmer sows the word.
The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown,
and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes,
and takes away the word which has been sown in them.
And these are those who are sown on the rocky places,
who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy.
They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived.
When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble.
Others are those who are sown among the thorns.
These are those who have heard the word,
but the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things
entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Those which were sown on the good ground are those who hear the word, and accept it,
and bear fruit, some thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, and some one-hundred-fold.”

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