First Reading
Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
- 2
Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes vanity of vanities, and all is vanity.
- 3
What hath a man more of all his labour, that he taketh under the sun?
- 4
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth standeth for ever.
- 5
The sun riseth, and goeth down, and returneth to his place: and there rising again,
- 6
Maketh his round by the south, and turneth again to the north: the spirit goeth forward surveying all places round about, and returneth to his circuits.
- 7
All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea doth not overflow: unto the place from whence the rivers come, they return, to flow again.
- 8
All things are hard: man cannot explain them by word. The eye is not filled with seeing, neither is the ear filled with hearing.
- 9
What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done.
- 10
Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us.
- 11
There is no remembrance of former things: nor indeed of those things which hereafter are to come, shall there be any remembrance with them that shall be in the latter end.
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition · public domain