February 21, 2017

Sirarch 2: 1- 11

:1 Son, when you apply yourself to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare your soul for temptation.
2:2 Humble your heart, and persevere. Incline your ear, and accept words of understanding. And you should not hurry away in the time of distress.
2:3 Endure steadfastly for God. Join yourself to God, and persevere, so that your life may increase in the very end.
2:4 Accept everything that will happened to you, and persevere in your sorrow, and have patience in your humiliation.
2:5 For gold and silver are tested in fire, yet truly, acceptable men are tested in the furnace of humiliation.
2:6 Believe God, and he will restore you to health. And straighten your way, and hope in him. Observe his fear, and grow old in it.
2:7 You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy. And do not turn away from him, lest you fall.
2:8 You who fear the Lord, believe in him. And your reward will not be taken away.
2:9 You who fear the Lord, hope in him. And mercy will approach you, to your delight.
2:10 You who fear the Lord, love him. And your hearts will be illuminated.
2:11 My sons, consider the nations of men, and know that not one of them hoped in the Lord and was confounded.

Mark 9: 30- 37

9:30 Then he taught his disciples, and he said to them, “For the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and having been killed, on the third day he will rise again.”
9:31 But they did not understand the word. And they were afraid to question him.
9:32 And they went to Capernaum. And when they were in the house, he questioned them, “What did you discuss on the way?”
9:33 But they were silent. For indeed, on the way, they had disputed among themselves as to which of them was greater.
9:34 And sitting down, he called the twelve, and he said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be the last of all and the minister of all.”
9:35 And taking a child, he set him in their midst. And when he had embraced him, he said to them:
9:36 “Whoever receives one such child in my name, receives me. And whoever receives me, receives not me, but him who sent me.”
9:37 John responded to him by saying, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name; he does not follow us, and so we prohibited him.”