Catholic Epistle
A Reading from Epistle of St. James .
May his blessing be upon us.
Amen.
James 4 : 7 - 17
Chapter 4
| 7 | Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
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| 8 | Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
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| 9 | Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
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| 10 | Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
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| 11 | Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
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| 12 | There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
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| 13 | Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit";
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| 14 | whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
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| 15 | Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."
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| 16 | But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
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| 17 | Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
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Do not love the world or the things in the world.
The world passes away, and its desires; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Amen.
