March 20th : First Reading A curse on the man who puts his trust in man and turns from the Lord A Reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 17:5-10

 March 20th : First Reading

A curse on the man who puts his trust in man and turns from the Lord

A Reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 17:5-10 

The Lord says this:

‘A curse on the man who puts his trust in man,

who relies on things of flesh,

whose heart turns from the Lord.

He is like dry scrub in the wastelands:

if good comes, he has no eyes for it,

he settles in the parched places of the wilderness,

a salt land, uninhabited.

‘A blessing on the man who puts his trust in the Lord,

with the Lord for his hope.

He is like a tree by the waterside

that thrusts its roots to the stream:

when the heat comes it feels no alarm,

its foliage stays green;

it has no worries in a year of drought,

and never ceases to bear fruit.

‘The heart is more devious than any other thing,

perverse too: who can pierce its secrets?

I, the Lord, search to the heart,

I probe the loins,

to give each man what his conduct

and his actions deserve.’

The Word of the Lord.