Daily Reading for Wednesday, February 19th, 2020

Reading 1, James 1:19-27

¹⁹ Remember this, my dear brothers: everyone should be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to human anger;

²⁰ God's saving justice is never served by human anger;

²¹ so do away with all impurities and remnants of evil. Humbly welcome the Word which has been planted in you and can save your souls.

²² But you must do what the Word tells you and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves.

²³ Anyone who listens to the Word and takes no action is like someone who looks at his own features in a mirror and,

²⁴ once he has seen what he looks like, goes off and immediately forgets it.

²⁵ But anyone who looks steadily at the perfect law of freedom and keeps to it -- not listening and forgetting, but putting it into practice -- will be blessed in every undertaking.

²⁶ Nobody who fails to keep a tight rein on the tongue can claim to be religious; this is mere self-deception; that person's religion is worthless.

²⁷ Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father, is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows in their hardships, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 15:2-3, 3-4, 5

² Whoever lives blamelessly, who acts uprightly, who speaks the truth from the heart,

³ who keeps the tongue under control, who does not wrong a comrade, who casts no discredit on a neighbour,

⁴ who looks with scorn on the vile, but honours those who fear Yahweh, who stands by an oath at any cost,

⁵ who asks no interest on loans, who takes no bribe to harm the innocent. No one who so acts can ever be shaken.