¹ Here is a saying that you can rely on: to want to be a presiding elder is to desire a noble task.

² That is why the presiding elder must have an impeccable character. Husband of one wife, he must be temperate, discreet and courteous, hospitable and a good teacher;

³ not a heavy drinker, nor hot-tempered, but gentle and peaceable, not avaricious,

⁴ a man who manages his own household well and brings his children up to obey him and be well-behaved:

⁵ how can any man who does not understand how to manage his own household take care of the Church of God?

⁶ He should not be a new convert, in case pride should turn his head and he incur the same condemnation as the devil.

⁷ It is also necessary that he be held in good repute by outsiders, so that he never falls into disrepute and into the devil's trap.

⁸ Similarly, deacons must be respectable, not double-tongued, moderate in the amount of wine they drink and with no squalid greed for money.

⁹ They must hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

¹⁰ They are first to be examined, and admitted to serve as deacons only if there is nothing against them.

¹¹ Similarly, women must be respectable, not gossips, but sober and wholly reliable.

¹² Deacons must be husbands of one wife and must be people who manage their children and households well.

¹³ Those of them who carry out their duties well as deacons will earn a high standing for themselves and an authoritative voice in matters concerning faith in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴ I write this to you in the hope that I may be able to come to you soon;

¹⁵ but in case I should be delayed, I want you to know how people ought to behave in God's household -- that is, in the Church of the living God, pillar and support of the truth.

¹⁶ Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is very deep indeed: He was made visible in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed to the gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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