If a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer

The Lesson from today's Mass prompted echoes of a previous post from two years ago.

First, the text taken from St James's epistle


Lectio
Léctio Epístolæ beáti Iacóbi Apóstoli
Ias 1:22-27

Caríssimi: Estóte factóres verbi, et non auditóres tantum: falléntes vosmetípsos. Quia si quis audítor est verbi et non factor: hic comparábitur viro consideránti vultum nativitátis suæ in spéculo: considerávit enim se et ábiit, et statim oblítus est, qualis fúerit. Qui autem perspéxerit in legem perfectam libertátis et permánserit in ea, non audítor obliviósus factus, sed factor óperis: hic beátus in facto suo erit. Si quis autem putat se religiósum esse, non refrénans linguam suam, sed sedúcens cor suum, huius vana est relígio. Relígio munda et immaculáta apud Deum et Patrem hæc est: Visitáre pupíllos et viduas in tribulatióne eórum, et immaculátum se custodíre ab hoc sǽculo.

R. Deo grátias.


Lesson
Lesson from the letter of St James the Apostle
Jas 1:22-27

Dearly beloved: But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was. But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty, and hath continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work; this man shall be blessed in his deed. And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation: and to keep one's self unspotted from this world.

R. Thanks be to God.


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Next, a copy of the post from the 2nd of May 2018 (published on the BloorBooks site):

 '...and great was the fall thereof'

'...great was the fall thereof'

This is one page from an exercise book in which K proved herself to be an adept and diligent student of her Faith, at only five years of age (1985)

Our theme of words continues with K's illustrations of a story Our Lord told in his Sermon on the Mount:

[24] Every one that heareth these my words, and doth them, shall be likened  to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, [25]And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock.[26] And every one that heareth these my words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, [27] And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof. [Matthew 7]

How tragic for all concerned that so many of us have followed the example of the foolish man in Verse 26.  'Great was the fall thereof'. Indeed.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam