Friday in the 7ᵗʰ Week in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING
A faithful friend is beyond comparison.
A reading from the Book of Sirach 6:5-17

A pleasant voice multiplies friends and softens enemies, and a gracious tongue
multiplies courtesies. Let those that are at peace with you be many,
but let your advisers 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
towards 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 neighbour also.

The word of the Lord.

 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM Psalm 119: 12.16.18.27.34.35 (R. 35a)
R/. Guide me, Lord, in the path of your commands.

Blest are you, O Lord;
teach me your statutes. R/.

I take delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word. R/.

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

R/. Guide me, Lord, in the path of your commands.

Make me grasp the way of your precepts,
and I will ponder your wonders. R/.

Grant me insight that I may keep your law,
and observe it wholeheartedly. R/.

 

ALLELUIA John 17:17ba
Alleluia.

Your word, O Lord, is truth; sanctify us in the truth.

Alleluia.

GOSPEL
“What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 10:1-12

At that time: Jesus went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan,
and crowds gathered to him again; and again, as his custom was, he taught them.
And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man
to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?”
They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce,
and to put her away.” 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 man shall leave his father
and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. ’
So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together,
let not man put asunder.” And in the house the disciples asked him again
about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife
and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband
and marries another, she commits adultery.”

The Gospel of the Lord