A Reading to Live By!

Today's first reading is quite ideal to reflect on during Lent and to live by always.

First Reading - Jer 17:5-10

5. Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is a man who trusts in man, and who establishes what is flesh as his right arm, and whose heart withdraws from the Lord.
6. For he will be like a saltcedar tree in the desert. And he will not perceive it, when what is good has arrived. Instead, he will live in dryness, in a desert, in a land of salt, which is uninhabitable.
7. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, for the Lord will be his confidence.
8. And he will be like a tree planted beside waters, which sends out its roots to moist soil. And it will not fear when the heat arrives. And its leaves will be green. And in the time of drought, it will not be anxious, nor will it cease at any time to bear fruit.
9. The heart is depraved above all things, and it is unsearchable, who can know it?
10. I am the Lord, who examines the heart and tests the temperament, who gives to each one according to his way and according to the fruit of his own decisions.