Catholic Epistle
A Reading from Epistle of St. James .
May his blessing be upon us.
Amen.
James 3 : 1 - 12
Chapter 3
| 1 | My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.
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| 2 | For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.
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| 3 | Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.
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| 4 | Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.
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| 5 | Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!
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| 6 | And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
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| 7 | For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
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| 8 | But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
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| 9 | With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.
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| 10 | Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
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| 11 | Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?
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| 12 | Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
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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.
