Today's Readings
Isaiah 50 : 1 - 3
1 | Thus says the LORD: "Where is the certificate of your mother's divorce, Whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, And for your transgressions your mother has been put away. |
2 | Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; Their fish stink because there is no water, And die of thirst. |
3 | I clothe the heavens with blackness, And I make sackcloth their covering." |
Sirach 1 : 20 - 30
20 | To fear God is the fulness of wisdom, and fulness is from the fruits thereof. |
21 | She shall fill all her house with her increase, and the storehouses with her treasures. |
22 | The fear of the Lord is a crown of wisdom, filling up peace and the fruit of salvation: |
23 | And it hath seen, and numbered her: but both are the gifts of God. |
24 | Wisdom shall distribute knowledge, and understanding of prudence: and exalteth the glory of them that hold her. |
25 | The root of wisdom is to fear the Lord: and the branches thereof are longlived. |
26 | In the treasures of wisdom is understanding, and religiousness of knowledge: but to sinners wisdom is an abomination. |
27 | The fear of the Lord driveth out sin: |
28 | For he that is without fear, cannot be justified: for the wrath of his high spirits is his ruin. |
29 | A patient man shall bear for a time, and afterwards joy shall be restored to him. |
30 | A good understanding will hide his words for a time, and the lips of many shall declare his wisdom. |