September 2, 2012, Second Reading

1:17	Every excellent gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor any shadow of alteration.
1:18	For by his own will he produced us through the Word of truth, so that we might be a kind of beginning among his creatures.
1:19	You know this, my most beloved brothers. So let every man be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to anger.
1:20	For the anger of man does not accomplish the justice of God.
1:21	Because of this, having cast away all uncleanness and an abundance of malice, receive with meekness the newly-grafted Word, which is able to save your souls.
1:22	So be doers of the Word, and not listeners only, deceiving yourselves.
1:23	For if anyone is a listener of the Word, but not also a doer, he is comparable to a man gazing into a mirror upon the face that he was born with;
1:24	and after considering himself, he went away and promptly forgot what he had seen.
1:25	But he who gazes upon the perfect law of liberty, and who remains in it, is not a forgetful hearer, but instead a doer of the work. He shall be blessed in what he does.
1:26	But if anyone considers himself to be religious, but he does not restrain his tongue, but instead seduces his own heart: such a one’s religion is vanity.
1:27	This is religion, clean and undefiled before God the Father: to visit orphans and widows in their tribulations, and to keep yourself immaculate, apart from this age.

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