Feb 16, 2024. Gospel: Matt 5:43-48; 6:1-4. Friday after Ash Wednesday.

“5:43. You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thy enemy. 5:44. But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: 5:45. That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust. 5:46. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? do not even the publicans this? The publicans. . .These were the gatherers of the public taxes: a set of men, odious and” “infamous among the Jews, for their extortions and injustice. 5:47. And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? do not also the heathens this? 5:48. Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect. 6:1. Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward of your Father who is in heaven. Your justice. . .that is, works of justice; viz., fasting, prayer, and almsdeeds; which ought to be performed not out of ostentation, or a view to please men, but solely to please God. 6:2. Therefore when thou dost an alms-deed, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honoured by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. 6:3. But when thou dost alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth.” “6:4. That thy alms may be in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee.” Excerpt from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete Anonymous https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-bible-douay-rheims-complete/id955129088 This material may be protected by copyright.