Next week's Epistle is a keeper.

[rug]

Reading II
Jas 5:1-6

Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.
Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten,
your gold and silver have corroded,
and that corrosion will be a testimony against you;
it will devour your flesh like a fire.
You have stored up treasure for the last days.
Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers
who harvested your fields are crying aloud;
and the cries of the harvesters
have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure;
you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.
You have condemned;
you have murdered the righteous one;
he offers you no resistance.

[hedgehog]

1. I know we're approaching the end of the Church year, and that's why we're

starting to focus on Judgement Day, but it's still appropriate to see these readings come around during northern hemisphere harvest time.

[rug]

3. I wonder if it's paralleling Yom Kippur.

[Joe Chi Minh]

2. It's been great being reminded of some of the most fundamental truths of

the faith. The one that most struck me today was: "No man can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money."

And for the bishop, in particular, to reflect on (and tremble):

"Father
You summed up the whole law
as love of you and of our neighbour.
Grant that by keeping this commandment of love,
we may come to eternal life.
(We make our prayer through our Lord.
(Through Christ ou Lord.)

[rug]

4. Yeah, it gives a whole new meaning to being a fundamentalist Christian.

[47of74]

5. So was last week's

I didn't make it to Mass last Sunday because I wasn't feeling that well, so tonight I saw what last week's reading was;

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, ” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Indeed someone might say, “You have faith and I have works.” Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. (Jas 2:14-18)

I wish the right wingers would read that. What good does it do to get on one's high horse to another about religion if that person does not have anything to eat or protect them from the elements?

[Brigid]

6. You like James?

Then you should try the Old Testament prophet Amos. James is the Amos of the New Testament.