Readings of the day

Mass readings

1. First reading 1 Samuel 15:16-23

   ¹⁶Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I will tell you what the LORD said to me last night.” He said to him, “Say on.” ¹⁷Samuel said, “Though you were little in your own sight, weren’t you made the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel; ¹⁸and the LORD sent you on a journey, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ ¹⁹Why then didn’t you obey the LORD’s voice, but took the plunder, and did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight?” ²⁰Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the LORD’s voice, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. ²¹But the people took of the plunder, sheep and cattle, the best of the devoted things, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.” ²²Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the LORD’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. ²³For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected the LORD’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.”

   WEB-C · World English Bible (Catholic). Public Domain. Source: eBible.org. Read in context: 1 Samuel 15:16-23

2. Responsorial Psalm Psalms 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21, 23

   ⁸I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me. ⁹I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens. ¹⁶But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips, ¹⁷since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you? ²¹You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes. ²³Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”

   Some verses are read only in part; the whole verse is shown.

   WEB-C · World English Bible (Catholic). Public Domain. Source: eBible.org. Read in context: Psalms 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21, 23

3. Gospel acclamation Hebrews 4:12

4. Gospel Mark 2:18-22

   ¹⁸John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?” ¹⁹Jesus said to them, “Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast. ²⁰But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. ²¹No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the patch shrinks and the new tears away from the old, and a worse hole is made. ²²No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the skins, and the wine pours out, and the skins will be destroyed; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins.”

   WEB-C · World English Bible (Catholic). Public Domain. Source: eBible.org. Read in context: Mark 2:18-22