Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
We hope that today is a good day.
Today's Bible story based on the calendar of the Catholic Church.
Most of these contents are things of The World English Bible.
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+ Saints: St. Brigid of Ireland
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Hebrews 10:32-39
32 But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings;
33 partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions; and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so.
34 For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens.
35 Therefore don't throw away your boldness, which has a great reward.
36 For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
37 "In a very little while, he who comes will come, and will not wait.
38 But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."☆
39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.
☆10:38: Habakkuk 2:3-4
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Gospel : Mark 4:26-34
26 He said, "God's Kingdom is as if a man should cast seed on the earth,
27 and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he doesn't know how.
28 For the earth bears fruit: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
29 But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."
30 He said, "How will we liken God's Kingdom? Or with what parable will we illustrate it?
31 It's like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth,
32 yet when it is sown, grows up, and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow."
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.
34 Without a parable he didn't speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
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* Romans 11:1-12
1 I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God didn't reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don't you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:
3 "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life."☆
4 But how does God answer him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal."☆
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
7 What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn't obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
8 According as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day."☆
9 David says, "Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Bow down their back always."☆
11 I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.
12 Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
☆11:3: 1 Kings 19:10,14
☆11:4: 1 Kings 19:18
☆11:8: Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 29:10
☆11:10: Psalm 69:22,23
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