Book of Ecclesiastes

A Reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes (3:1-11)

There is an appointed time for everything,

and a time for every thing under the heavens.

A time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to tear down, and a time to build.

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them;

a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.

A time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away.

A time to rend, and a time to sew;

a time to be silent, and a time to speak.

A time to love, and a time to hate;

a time of war, and a time of peace.

What advantage has the worker from his toil?

I have considered the task that God has appointed

for the sons of men to be busied about.

He has made everything appropriate to its time,

and has put the timeless into their hearts,

without man’s ever discovering,

from beginning to end, the work which God has done.

The word of the Lord.