Daily Reading for Wednesday, May 22nd, 2024

Reading 1, James 4:13-17

¹³ Well now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow, we are off to this or that town; we are going to spend a year there, trading, and make some money.'

¹⁴ You never know what will happen tomorrow: you are no more than a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears.

¹⁵ Instead of this, you should say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we shall still be alive to do this or that.'

¹⁶ But as it is, how boastful and loud -- mouthed you are! Boasting of this kind is always wrong.

¹⁷ Everyone who knows what is the right thing to do and does not do it commits a sin.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 49:2-3, 6-7, 8-10, 11

² people high and low, rich and poor alike!

³ My lips have wisdom to utter, my heart good sense to whisper.

⁶ They trust in their wealth, and boast of the profusion of their riches.

⁷ But no one can ever redeem himself or pay his own ransom to God,

⁸ the price for himself is too high; it can never be

⁹ that he will live on for ever and avoid the sight of the abyss.

¹⁰ For he will see the wise also die no less than the fool and the brute, and leave their wealth behind for others.

¹¹ For ever no home but their tombs, their dwelling-place age after age, though they gave their name to whole territories.