Hi everyone and welcome back to the podcast where we take a look at the gospel reading from today's

Mass and it's a bit of a longer one today, so we're going to get straight into it.

Mark chapter 4, verses 1 to 20.

Jesus began to teach by the lakeside, but such a huge crowd gathered round him that he got

into a boat on the lake and sat there. The people were all along the shore at the water's edge.

He taught them many things in parables,

and in the course of his teaching he said to them,

Listen, imagine a sewer going out to sew.

Now, it happened that as he sowed some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the

birds came and ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and sprang

up straight away, because there was no depth of earth, and when the sun came up it was scorched

and not having any roots roots it withered away.

Some seed fell into thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it and it produced no crop.

And some seeds fell into rich soil and growing tall and strong produced crop and yielded 30, 60, even a hundredfold.

And he said, listen, anyone who has ears to hear.

When he was alone, the 12, gathered with the others who formed his company, asked what the parables meant. He told them,

the secret of the kingdom of God is given to you, but to those who are outside, everything

comes in parables, so that they may see and see again, but not perceive, may hear and hear again,

but not understand. Otherwise, they might be converted and be forgiven.

He said to them, do you not understand this parable?

Then how we understand any of the parables.

What the sower is sewing is the word, those on the edge of the parables. What the sower is sowing is the word.

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