Reading 1, Jonah 4:1-11
1 This made Jonah very indignant; he fell into a rage.
2 He prayed to Yahweh and said, ‘Please, Yahweh, isn’t this what I said would happen when I was still in my own country? That was why I first tried to flee to Tarshish, since I knew you were a tender, compassionate God, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, who relents about inflicting disaster.
3 So now, Yahweh, please take my life, for I might as well be dead as go on living.’
4 Yahweh replied, ‘Are you right to be angry?’
5 Jonah then left the city and sat down to the east of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, to see what would happen to the city.
6 Yahweh God then ordained that a castor-oil plant should grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head and soothe his ill-humour; Jonah was delighted with the castor-oil plant.
7 But at dawn the next day, God ordained that a worm should attack the castor-oil plant — and it withered.
8 Next, when the sun rose, God ordained that there should be a scorching east wind; the sun beat down so hard on Jonah’s head that he was overcome and begged for death, saying, ‘I might as well be dead as go on living.’
9 God said to Jonah, ‘Are you right to be angry about the castor-oil plant?’ He replied, ‘I have every right to be angry, mortally angry!’
10 Yahweh replied, ‘You are concerned for the castor-oil plant which has not cost you any effort and which you did not grow, which came up in a night and has perished in a night.
11 So why should I not be concerned for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, to say nothing of all the animals?’
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 86:3-4, 5-6, 9-10
3 take pity on me, Lord, for to you I cry all the day.
4 Fill your servant’s heart with joy, Lord, for to you I raise up my heart.
5 Lord, you are kind and forgiving, rich in faithful love for all who call upon you.
6 Yahweh, hear my prayer, listen to the sound of my pleading.
9 All nations will come and adore you, Lord, and give glory to your name.
10 For you are great and do marvellous deeds, you, God, and none other.
1 Now it happened that he was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’
2 He said to them, ‘When you pray, this is what to say: Father, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come;
4 for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us. And do not put us to the test.’
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