Reading 1, Ezekiel 17:22-24
22 “The Lord Yahweh says this: From the top of the tall cedar tree, from the highest branch I shall take a shoot and plant it myself on a high and lofty mountain.
23 I shall plant it on the highest mountain in Israel. It will put out branches and bear fruit and grow into a noble cedar tree. Every kind of bird will live beneath it, every kind of winged creature will rest in the shade of its branches.
24 And all the trees of the countryside will know that I, Yahweh, am the one who lays the tall tree low and raises the low tree high, who makes the green tree wither and makes the withered bear fruit. I, Yahweh, have spoken, and I will do it.” ‘
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16
2 to proclaim your faithful love at daybreak, and your constancy all through the night,
3 on the lyre, the ten-stringed lyre, to the murmur of the harp.
13 Planted in the house of Yahweh, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
14 In old age they will still bear fruit, will remain fresh and green,
15 to proclaim Yahweh’s integrity; my rock, in whom no fault can be found.
Gospel, Mark 4:26-34
26 He also said, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the land.
27 Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know.
28 Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
29 And when the crop is ready, at once he starts to reap because the harvest has come.’
30 He also said, ‘What can we say that the kingdom is like? What parable can we find for it?
31 It is like a mustard seed which, at the time of its sowing, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.
32 Yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.’
33 Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it.
34 He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were by themselves.
Reading 2, Second Corinthians 5:6-10
6 in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness; in the Holy Spirit, in a love free of affectation;
7 in the word of truth and in the power of God; by using the weapons of uprightness for attack and for defence:
8 in times of honour or disgrace, blame or praise; taken for impostors and yet we are genuine;
9 unknown and yet we are acknowledged; dying, and yet here we are, alive; scourged but not executed;
10 in pain yet always full of joy; poor and yet making many people rich; having nothing, and yet owning everything.
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