Reading 1, Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

1 There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven:

2 A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted.

3 A time for killing, a time for healing; a time for knocking down, a time for building.

4 A time for tears, a time for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing.

5 A time for throwing stones away, a time for gathering them; a time for embracing, a time to refrain from embracing.

6 A time for searching, a time for losing; a time for keeping, a time for discarding.

7 A time for tearing, a time for sewing; a time for keeping silent, a time for speaking.

8 A time for loving, a time for hating; a time for war, a time for peace.

9 What do people gain from the efforts they make?

10 I contemplate the task that God gives humanity to labour at.

11 All that he does is apt for its time; but although he has given us an awareness of the passage of time, we can grasp neither the beginning nor the end of what God does.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 144:1-2, 3-4

1 [Of David] Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle,

2 my faithful love, my bastion, my citadel, my Saviour; I shelter behind him, my shield, he makes the peoples submit to me.

3 Yahweh, what is a human being for you to notice, a child of Adam for you to think about?

4 Human life, a mere puff of wind, days as fleeting as a shadow.

18 Now it happened that he was praying alone, and his disciples came to him and he put this question to them, ‘Who do the crowds say I am?’

19 And they answered, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others Elijah; others again one of the ancient prophets come back to life.’

20 ‘But you,’ he said to them, ‘who do you say I am?’ It was Peter who spoke up. ‘The Christ of God,’ he said.

21 But he gave them strict orders and charged them not to say this to anyone.

22 He said, ‘The Son of man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’

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