Friday, Week 7 in Ordinary Time

March 1, 2019



First Reading: Sirach 6:5-17

A pleasant voice multiplies friends, and a gracious tongue multiplies courtesies. Let those that are at peace with you be many, but let your advisers be one in a thousand. When you gain a friend, gain him through testing, and do not trust him hastily. For there is a friend who is such at his own convenience, but will not stand by you in your day of trouble. And there is a friend who changes into an enemy, and will disclose a quarrel to your disgrace. 10 And there is a friend who is a table companion, but will not stand by you in your day of trouble. 11 In prosperity he will make himself your equal, and be bold with your servants; 12 but if you are brought low he will turn against you, and will hide himself from your presence. 13 Keep yourself far from your enemies, and be on guard toward your friends. 14 A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter: he that has found one has found a treasure. 15 There is nothing so precious as a faithful friend, and no scales can measure his excellence. 16 A faithful friend is an elixir of life; and those who fear the Lord will find him. 17 Whoever fears the Lord directs his friendship aright, for as he is, so is his neighbor also.


Psalm: 119:12, 16, 18, 27, 34-35

12 Blessed be thou, O LORD; teach me thy statutes! 16 I will delight in thy statutes; I will not forget thy word. 18 Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. 27 Make me understand the way of thy precepts, and I will meditate on thy wondrous works. 34 Give me understanding, that I may keep thy law and observe it with my whole heart. 35 Lead me in the path of thy commandments, for I delight in it.


Gospel: Mark 10:1-12

And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again; and again, as his custom was, he taught them. And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to put her away.” But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” 10 And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Reflection for the day: “Let every knee bend before Thee, O greatness of my God, so supremely humbled in the Sacred Host. May every heart love Thee, every spirit adore Thee and every will be subject to Thee.” — St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

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