2Sam 11:1-4a.5-10a.13-17; Mark 4

Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest & Doctor of the Church
Readings on p. 767 and Antiphons on p. 1556 & 1920 of the Daily Missal.

Entrance Antiphon.

Your priests, O Lord, shall be clothed with justice; your holy ones shall ring our their joy.

 

First Reading: 2 Samuel 11:1-4a.5-10a.13-17

A reading from the Second Book of Samuel.

It happened that, in the spring of the year,
the time when kings go forth to battle,
David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel;
and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah.
But David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened, late one afternoon,
when David arose from his couch
and was walking upon the roof of the king’s house,
that he saw from the roof a woman bathing;
and the woman was very beautiful.
And David sent and inquired about the woman.
And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba,
the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
So David sent messengers and took her,
and she came to him, and he lay with her.

And the woman conceived;
and she sent and told David, “I am with child.”

So David sent word to Joab,
“Send me Uriah the Hittite.”
And Joab sent Uriah to David.
When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing,
and how the people fared, and how the war prospered.
Then David said to Uriah,
“Go down to your house, and wash your feet.”
And Uriah went out of the king’s house,
and there followed him a present from the king.

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.
They told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house.”

And David invited him,
and he ate in his presence and drank
so that he made him drunk,
and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch
with the servants of his lord,
but he did not go down to his house.

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab
and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
In the letter he wrote,
“Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting,
and then draw back from him,
that he may be struck down, and die.”
And as Joab was besieging the city,
he assigned Uriah to the place
where he knew there were valiant men.
And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab,
and some of the servants of David among the people fell.
Uriah the Hittite was slain also.

The Word of the Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3-7.10-11 (R. cf. 3a)

Let us now pray the Responsorial Psalm:

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

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your merciful love;
according to your great compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me completely from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

My transgressions, truly I know them;
my sin is always before me.
Against you, you alone, have I sinned;
what is evil in your sight I have done.

So you are just in your sentence,
without reproach in your judgment.
O see, in guilt, I was born,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.

Let me hear rejoicing and gladness,
that the bones you have crushed may exult.
Turn away your face from my sins,
and blot out all my guilt.

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

Please stand for the Gospel.

Alleluia, Alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
that you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom.
Alleluia.

 

 

 

 

Gospel: Mark 4:26-34

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark.

At that time:
Jesus said to the crowds,
“The kingdom of God is as if a man
should scatter seed upon the ground
and should sleep and rise night and day,
and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how.
The earth produces of itself,
first the blade, then the ear,
then the full grain in the ear.
But when the grain is ripe,
at once he puts in the sickle
because the harvest has come.”

And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God,
or what parable shall we use for it?
It is like a grain of mustard seed,
which, when sown upon the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;
yet when it is sown it grows up
and becomes the greatest of all shrubs
and puts forth large branches
so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

With many such parables, he spoke the word to them,
as they were able to hear it;
he did not speak to them without a parable,
but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Communion Antiphon.
Blessed is the servant whom the Lord finds watching when he comes. Amen I say to you, he will put that servant in charge of all his property.