Liturgy of the Word
First Reading
Elise Balint
A reading from Ecclesiastes 3: 1-11
Elise:
There is a season for everything, a time for every
occupation under heaven.
A time for giving birth, a time for dying.
A time for planting,
a time for uprooting what has been planted.
A time for killing, a time for healing.
A time for knocking down, a time for building.
A time for tears, a time for mourning,
A time for dancing, a time for throwing stones away,
a time for gathering them.
A time for embracing, a time to refrain from embracing.
A time for searching, a time for losing.
A time for keeping, a time for discarding.
A time for tearing, a time for sewing.
A time for keeping silent, a time for speaking.
A time for loving, a time for hating, a time for war,
a time for peace.
What do people gain from the efforts they make? I
contemplate the task that God gives humanity to labour at.
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.
The Word of the Lord.
All: Thanks be to God.