Friday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
January 30, 2026
First Reading: 2 Samuel 11:1-10, 13-17
1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, David sent Joʹab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheʹba, the daughter of Eliʹam, the wife of Uriʹah the Hittite?” 4 So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am with child.” 6 So David sent word to Joʹab, “Send me Uriʹah the Hittite.” And Joʹab sent Uriʹah to David. 7 When Uriʹah came to him, David asked how Joʹab was doing, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered. 8 Then David said to Uriʹah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” And Uriʹah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. 9 But Uriʹah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 When they told David, “Uriʹah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriʹah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 13 And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. 14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joʹab, and sent it by the hand of Uriʹah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriʹah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” 16 And as Joʹab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriʹah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joʹab; and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriʹah the Hittite was slain also.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 8 Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. 9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, 27 and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” 30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
Reflection of the Day: “Do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places like the first apostles who preached Christ and the Good News of salvation in the squares of cities towns and villages. This is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel. It is time to preach it from the rooftops.” — Pope St. John Paul II
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