When David and Saul approached (on David's return after slaying the Philistine),  women came out from each of the cities of Israel to meet King Saul, singing and dancing, with tambourines, joyful songs, and sistrums. The women played and sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands." Saul was very angry and resentful of the song, for he thought: "They give David ten thousands, but only thousands to me. All that remains for him is the kingship." (And from that day on, Saul was jealous of David. Saul discussed his intention of killing David with his son Jonathan and with all his servants. But Saul's son Jonathan, who was very fond of David, told him: "My father Saul is trying to kill you. Therefore, please be on your guard tomorrow morning; get out of sight and remain in hiding. I, however, will go out and stand beside my father in the countryside where you are, and will speak to him about you. If I learn anything, I will let you know." Jonathan then spoke well of David to his father Saul, saying to him: "Let not your majesty sin against his servant David, for he has committed no offense against you, but has helped you very much by his deeds. When he took his life in his hands and slew the Philistine, and the LORD brought about a great victory for all Israel through him, you were glad to see it. Why, then, should you become guilty of shedding innocent blood by killing David without cause?" Saul heeded Jonathan's plea and swore, "As the LORD lives, he shall not be killed." So Jonathan summoned David and repeated the whole conversation to him. Jonathan then brought David to Saul, and David served him as before.

Have mercy on me, O God, for men trample upon me; all the day they press their attack against me. My adversaries trample upon me all the day; yes, many fight against me. My wanderings you have counted; my tears are stored in your flask; are they not recorded in your book? Then do my enemies turn back, when I call upon you. Now I know that God is with me. In God, in whose promise I glory, in God I trust without fear; what can flesh do against me? I am bound, O God, by vows to you; your thank offerings I will fulfill. For you have rescued me from death, my feet, too, from stumbling; that I may walk before God in the light of the living.

Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples. A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea. Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him. He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him. And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, "You are the Son of God." He warned them sternly not to make him known.

O Mercy, sent and poured out over all human beings! In you, Lord, this mercy dwells, you who, in your compassion for all humankind, came out to meet them. Through your death you opened for them the treasures of your mercy… For your profound being is hidden from human sight but is traced in its least movements. Your work gives us an outline of their Author and creatures point us to their Creator (Wis 13:1; Rom 1:20) so we might touch him who shies away from intellectual seeking but who shows himself in his gifts. It is difficult to succeed in being present to him face to face, but it is easy to draw near to him. Our thanksgiving is insufficient but we adore you in all things for your love of humankind. You distinguish each one of us by in the depths of our invisible being, we who are all basically connected by Adam’s one nature… We adore you who placed each one of us into this world, who entrusted to us everything that is here, and who will take us out of this world at an hour that we do not know. We adore you who placed speech into our mouths so that we might tell you our requests. Adam acclaims you, he who rests in peace, and we, his posterity, with him, for we all benefit from your grace. The winds praise you…, the earth praises you…, the seas praise you…, the trees praise you…, the plants and the flowers also bless you… May all things come together and unite their voice in praising you, competing with one another in thanksgiving for all your kindnesses and united in peace to bless you. May all things join together in raising up a work of praise for you. It is for us to reach out towards you with all our will and it is for you to pour out on us a little of your abundance so that your truth might convert us and thus our weakness might disappear, in which, without your grace, we cannot reach you, Master of gifts.

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.

Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war. My mercy and my fortress, my stronghold, my deliverer, my shield, in whom I trust, who subdues my people under me. O God, I will sing a new song to you; with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise, You who give victory to kings, and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.

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.

At the hour of Terce you will place yourself in presence of the divine peace and of love... O peace of God, you pass all understanding (Phil 4:7), you are unutterably sweet and fair and full of charms. Wherever you penetrate reigns untroubled security. You alone can stay the wrath of the sovereign king; you adorn with clemency the king's throne; you illumine his glorious kingdom with pity and mercy. Come, then, and take my cause in hand, the cause of a wretch most guilty and most forlorn... Already the creditor is at the door... if I speak with him, I am undone, for I have nothing with which to repay my debt. Sweetest Jesus, my peace, how long will you keep silent?... Be pleased to speak on my behalf, uttering that word of love: "I myself will redeem her." Most surely you yourself are the refuge of all the poor. You never pass by anyone without granting them healing. Oh, you have never let anyone who has sought refuge at your side leave you without being reconciled... Be pleased, my love, my Jesus at this hour when you were scourged for my sake, crowned with thorns, pitifully drowned in suffering. You are my true king and, apart from you, I know none other. You made yourself the insult of the people, abject and repulsive like a leper (Is 53:3), so that the Jews refused to acknowledge you as their king (Jn 19:14-15). By your grace, grant that I, at least, may acknowledge you as my king! O my God, give to me that innocent, so greatly beloved, my Jesus, who so fully "paid" for my sake "what he had not stolen" (Ps 69[68]:5);give him to me to be my soul's stay. May I receive him into my heart; may he console my spirit by the bitterness of his pains and Passion... As for you, O peace of God: be the dear bond binding me to Jesus for ever. Be the support of my strength... that I may be but "one heart and soul" with Jesus (Acts 4:32)... Through you shall I be bound to my Jesus for ever.

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.

Once you spoke in vision; to your faithful ones you said: “On a champion I have placed a crown; over the people I have set a youth.” I have chosen David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him. That my hand will be with him; and that my arm will make him strong. “He shall say of me, 'You are my father, my God, the Rock, my savior.' And I will make him the first-born, highest of the kings of the earth.”

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, "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."

From the first, the law of the Sabbath conferred many and great benefits; for instance, it made the Jews gentle and humane towards those of their own household, ; it taught them God the Creator's providence and wisdom... When God gave the law for the Sabbath he said... that he would have them refrain from evil works only when he said: “You must do no work, except for what is necessary for life” (Ex 12:16 LXX). And in the temple, too, everything continued with more diligence than ever. Thus even by means of the very shadow he was secretly opening the full light of truth (cf. Col 2:17). Did Christ then do away with so highly profitable a thing? Far from it; he greatly enhanced it. For it was unnecessary... that we should learn from it that God made all things or that we should be made kind by it who are called to imitate God's own love. For he says: “Be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful”(Lk 6:36). It was no longer necessary to fix a day of festival for those who are commanded to keep a feast all their life long. For: “Let us keep the feast,” Saint Paul writes, “not with old leaven, neither with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1Cor 5:8)... So now, why is any sabbath required for christians who are always keeping the feast and whose conversation is in heaven? Yes, my brethren, let us celebrate that continual, heavenly sabbath.