12/07/2026
Today's Gospel (Matthew 13:1-23)
That same day, Jesus left the house and went to sit by the lake.
So many people gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the entire crowd stood on the shore.
Then he began to teach them many things in stories, saying:
"A farmer went out to scatter seed.
As he scattered, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and ate them.
Other seeds fell on rocky soil, where there wasn’t much dirt. They sprouted quickly because the ground was shallow,
but when the sun came up they were burned, and because they had no deep roots they dried up.
Some seeds fell among thorn bushes, and the thorns grew up and crowded them out.
But other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain — some a hundred times, some sixty, some thirty.
Anyone who has ears should listen."
The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you talk to the crowds in stories?"
He answered, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not.
For whoever has will be given more, and he will have plenty; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
That is why I speak to them in stories, because 'they see but do not perceive, they hear but do not understand.'"
In them is fulfilled what Isaiah said: 'You will listen and listen but not understand, you will look and look but not see.
For this people’s heart has grown dull, they hear with difficulty, and they have shut their eyes, so that they may not see with their eyes and hear with their ears and turn, and I would heal them.'
But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.
Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
"Now listen to the meaning of the story of the sower.
The seed along the path stands for the person who hears the message of the kingdom but doesn’t understa
