St. Francis Mary of Camporosso
September 19, 2018
First Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:31–13:13
1231But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.131If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; 10but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. 13So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
2Praise the LORD with the lyre, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! 3Sing to him a new song, play skilfully on the strings, with loud shouts. 4For the word of the LORD is upright; and all his work is done in faithfulness. 5He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. 12Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! 22Let thy steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in thee.
31“To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? 32They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, `We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.’ 33For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say, `He has a demon.’ 34The Son of man has come eating and drinking; and you say, `Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”
Reflection for the day: ‘Christ is Master by virtue of His own essence and Master by virtue of His incarnate life. For He creates man from nothing, and through His own Blood redeems him when dead in sin; and to those who believe in Him He has given His grace.’ -St. Mark the Ascetic
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