Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time (I)

Official Translation

Reading 1 – Sirach 6.5-17

A pleasant voice multiplies friends and appeases enemies,
and a gracious tongue multiplies greetings.
Let those who are at peace with you be many, but let your confidants be one in a thousand.
When you gain a friend, gain him through testing, and do not trust him hastily.
For there is a friend who is such at his own convenience,
but will not stand by you in your day of trouble.
And there is a friend who changes into an enemy, and will disclose a quarrel to your disgrace.
And there is a friend who is a table companion, but will not stand by you in your day of trouble.
In your prosperity he will make himself your equal, and be bold with your servants,
but if you are brought low he will turn against you, and will hide himself from your presence.
Keep yourself far from your enemies, and be on guard toward your friends.
A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he that has found one has found a treasure.
There is nothing so precious as a faithful friend, and no scales can measure his excellence.
A faithful friend is an elixir of life, and those who fear the Lord will find him.
Whoever fears the Lord directs his friendship aright, for as he is, so is his friend also.

Responsorial – Psalm 119.12, 16, 18, 27, 34, 35 Resp. 35a

R. Lord, guide me on the path of your commandments.

Blessed are you, O Lord.
Teach me your statutes.

R. Lord, guide me on the path of your commandments.

I will delight myself in your statutes.
I will not forget your word.

R. Lord, guide me on the path of your commandments.

Open my eyes,
that I may see wonders of your law.

R. Lord, guide me on the path of your commandments.

Let me understand the teaching of your precepts!
Then I will meditate on your wondrous works.

R. Lord, guide me on the path of your commandments.

Give me understanding, and I will keep your law.
Yes, I will obey it with my whole heart.

R. Lord, guide me on the path of your commandments.

Direct me in the path of your commandments,
for I delight in them.

R. Lord, guide me on the path of your commandments.

Gospel – Mark 10.1-12

Jesus came into the borders of Judea and beyond the Jordan.
Crowds came together to him again.
As he usually did, he was again teaching them.

Pharisees came to him and asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his woman?”
He answered, “What did Moses command you?”
They said, “Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her.”
But Jesus said to them,
“For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a human will leave his father and mother, and will join to his woman,
and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh.
What therefore God has joined together, no human may separate.”

In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter.
He said to them, “Whoever divorces his woman, and marries another,
commits adultery against her.
If a woman divorces her man, and marries another, she commits adultery.”