Friday of week 7 in Ordinary Time

First reading

James 5:9-12

Do not ask for judgement, or you may receive it

Do not make complaints against one another, brothers, so as not to be brought to judgement yourselves; the Judge is already to be seen waiting at the gates. For your example, brothers, in submitting with patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord; remember it is those who had endurance that we say are the blessed ones. You have heard of the patience of Job, and understood the Lord’s purpose, realising that the Lord is kind and compassionate.
Above all, my brothers, do not swear by heaven or by the earth, or use any oaths at all. If you mean ‘yes’, you must say ‘yes’; if you mean ‘no’, say ‘no.’ Otherwise you make yourselves liable to judgement.

Psalm or canticle

Psalm 102(103):1-4,8-9,11-12

My soul, give thanks to the Lord
 all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
 and never forget all his blessings.

It is he who forgives all your guilt,
 who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
 who crowns you with love and compassion.

The Lord is compassion and love,
 slow to anger and rich in mercy.
His wrath will come to an end;
 he will not be angry for ever.

For as the heavens are high above the earth
 so strong is his love for those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west
 so far does he remove our sins.

Gospel

Mark 10:1-12

What God has united, man must not divide

Jesus came to the district of Judaea and the far side of the Jordan. And again crowds gathered round him, and again he taught them, as his custom was. Some Pharisees approached him and asked, ‘Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife?’ They were testing him. He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ ‘Moses allowed us’ they said ‘to draw up a writ of dismissal and so to divorce.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘It was because you were so unteachable that he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. This is why a man must leave father and mother, and the two become one body. They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’ Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this, and he said to them, ‘The man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.’

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