A reading from
the Book of Wisdom 1:1-7
Love justice, you who judge the earth;/ think of the Lord in goodness,/ and seek him in integrity of heart;/ Because he is found by those who test him not,/ and he manifests himself to those who do not disbelieve him./ For perverse counsels separate a man from God,/ and his power, put to the proof, rebukes the foolhardy;/ Because into a soul that plots evil, wisdom enters not,/ nor dwells she in a body under debt of sin./ For the holy Spirit of discipline flees deceit/ and withdraws from senseless counsels;/ and when injustice occurs it is rebuked./ For wisdom is a kindly spirit,/ yet she acquits not the blasphemer of his guilty lips;/ Because God is the witness of his inmost self/ and the sure observer of his heart/ and the listener to his tongue./ For the Spirit of the Lord fills the world,/ is all-embracing, and knows what man says.
The word of the Lord.
