Wednesday of the Second week in Ordinary Time
1st book of Samuel 17:32-33.37.40-51.
David spoke to Saul: «Let your majesty not lose courage. I am at your service to go and fight this Philistine.»
But Saul answered David, “You cannot go up against this Philistine and fight with him, for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth.”
David continued: “The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will also keep me safe from the clutches of this Philistine.” Saul answered David, “Go! the LORD will be with you.”
Then, staff in hand, David selected five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag. With his sling also ready to hand, he approached the Philistine.
With his shield-bearer marching before him, the Philistine also advanced closer and closer to David.
When he had sized David up, and seen that he was youthful, and ruddy, and handsome in appearance, he held him in contempt.
The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with a staff?” Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods
and said to him, “Come here to me, and I will leave your flesh for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.”
David answered him: “You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel that you have insulted.
Today the LORD shall deliver you into my hand; I will strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will leave your corpse and the corpses of the Philistine army for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field; thus the whole land shall learn that Israel has a God.
All this multitude, too, shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves. For the battle is the LORD’S, and he shall deliver you into our hands.”
The Philistine then moved to meet David at close quarters, while David ran quickly toward the battle line in the direction of the Philistine.
David put his hand into the bag and took out a stone, hurled it with the sling, and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone embedded itself in his brow, and he fell prostrate on the ground.
(Thus David overcame the Philistine with sling and stone; he struck the Philistine mortally, and did it without a sword.)
Then David ran and stood over him; with the Philistine’s own sword (which he drew from its sheath) he dispatched him and cut off his head.When they saw that their hero was dead, the Philistines took to flight.

Psalms 144:1.2.9-10.
Of David. Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war;
My safe guard and my fortress, my stronghold, my deliverer, My shield, in whom I trust, who subdues peoples under me.
O God, a new song I will sing to you; on a ten-stringed lyre I will play for you.
You give victory to kings; you delivered David your servant. From the menacing sword

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 3:1-6.
Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand.
They watched him closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him.
He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.”
Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent.
Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored.
The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.
Commentary of the day : Melito of Sardis
“The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death”

Tuesday of the Second week in Ordinary Time
1st book of Samuel 16:1-13.
The LORD said to Samuel: «How long will you grieve for Saul, whom I have rejected as king of Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have chosen my king from among his sons.»
But Samuel replied: “How can I go? Saul will hear of it and kill me.” To this the LORD answered: “Take a heifer along and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’
Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I myself will tell you what to do; you are to anoint for me the one I point out to you.”
Samuel did as the LORD had commanded him. When he entered Bethlehem, the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and inquired, “Is your visit peaceful, O seer?”
He replied: “Yes! I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. So cleanse yourselves and join me today for the banquet.” He also had Jesse and his sons cleanse themselves and invited them to the sacrifice.
As they came, he looked at Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’S anointed is here before him.”
But the LORD said to Samuel: “Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart.”
Then Jesse called Abinadab and presented him before Samuel, who said, “The Lord has not chosen him.”
Next Jesse presented Shammah, but Samuel said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.”
In the same way Jesse presented seven sons before Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen any one of these.”
Then Samuel asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?” Jesse replied, “There is still the youngest, who is tending the sheep.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Send for him; we will not begin the sacrificial banquet until he arrives here.”
Jesse sent and had the young man brought to them. He was ruddy, a youth handsome to behold and making a splendid appearance. The LORD said, “There-anoint him, for this is he!”
Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand, anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and from that day on, the spirit of the LORD rushed upon David. When Samuel took his leave, he went to Ramah.

Psalms 89:20.21-22.27-28.
Once you spoke in vision; to your faithful ones you said: “I have set a leader over the warriors; I have raised up a hero from the army.
I have chosen David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him.
My hand will be with him; my arm will make him strong.
He shall cry to me,’You are my father, my God, the Rock that brings me victory!’
I myself make him firstborn, Most High over the kings of the earth.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 2:23-28.
As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him,
At this the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
Commentary of the day : Baldwin of Ford
“The Sabbath was made for man”

Monday of the Second week in Ordinary Time
1st book of Samuel 15:16-23.
Samuel said to Saul: «Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.» Saul replied, «Speak!»
Samuel then said: “Though little in your own esteem, are you not leader of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king of Israel
and sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction. Fight against them until you have exterminated them.’
Why then have you disobeyed the LORD? You have pounced on the spoil, thus displeasing the LORD.”
Saul answered Samuel: “I did indeed obey the LORD and fulfill the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban.
But from the spoil the men took sheep and oxen, the best of what had been banned, to sacrifice to the LORD their God in Gilgal.”
But Samuel said: “Does the LORD so delight in holocausts and sacrifices as in obedience to the command of the LORD? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams.
For a sin like divination is rebellion, and presumption is the crime of idolatry. Because you have rejected the command of the LORD, he, too, has rejected you as ruler.”

Psalms 50(49):8-9.16-17.21.23.
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you, nor for your holocausts, set before me daily.
I need no bullock from your house, no goats from your fold.
But to the wicked God says: “Why do you recite my commandments and profess my covenant with your lips?
You hate discipline; you cast my words behind you!
When you do these things should I be silent? Or do you think that I am like you? I accuse you, I lay the charge before you.
Those who offer praise as a sacrifice honor me; to the obedient I will show the salvation of God.”

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 2:18-22.
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to Jesus and objected, «Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?»
Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
Commentary of the day : Rupert of Deutz
“The Bridegroom is with them”