Today's Reading – May 23, 2013

Thursday of week 7 of the year

These readings are from the Jerusalem Bible. For copyright reasons we cannot show the New American Bible translations in our Web pages, but the Universalis downloads do contain them.

First reading

Ecclesiasticus 5:1-10

Do not give your heart to your money,
 or say, ‘With this I am self-sufficient.’
Do not be led by your appetites and energy
 to follow the passions of your heart.
And do not say, ‘Who has authority over me?’
 for the Lord will certainly be avenged on you.
Do not say, ‘I sinned, and what happened to me?’
f or the Lord’s forbearance is long.
Do not be so sure of forgiveness
 that you add sin to sin.
And do not say, ‘His compassion is great,
 he will forgive me my many sins’;
for with him are both mercy and wrath,
 and his rage bears heavy on sinners.
Do not delay your return to the Lord,
 do not put it off day after day;
for suddenly the Lord’s wrath will blaze out,
 and at the time of vengeance you will be utterly destroyed.
Do not set your heart on ill-gotten gains,
 they will be of no use to you on the day of disaster.

Psalm or canticle

Psalm 1:1-4,6

Happy indeed is the man
 who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners
 nor sits in the company of scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord
 and who ponders his law day and night.

He is like a tree that is planted
 beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
 and whose leaves shall never fade;
 and all that he does shall prosper.

Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff
 shall be driven away by the wind.
for the Lord guards the way of the just
 but the way of the wicked leads to doom.

Gospel

Mark 9:41-50

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong to Christ, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward.
‘But anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck. And if your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out. And if your foot should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die nor their fire go out. For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is a good thing, but if salt has become insipid, how can you season it again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.’

Notice

This scripture reading is extracted using an XML feed from the kind people at Universalis. The content itself is taken from the Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. For on-line information about other Random House, Inc. books and authors, see the Internet web site at http://www.randomhouse.com.