Saint Damasus, pope
17 Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I, the LORD, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go.
18 If you would hearken to my commandments, your prosperity would be like a river, and your vindication like the waves of the sea;
19 Your descendants would be like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains, Their name never cut off or blotted out from my presence.
1 Happy those who do not follow the counsel of the wicked, Nor go the way of sinners, nor sit in company with scoffers.
2 Rather, the law of the LORD is their joy; God’s law they study day and night.
3 They are like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season; Its leaves never wither; whatever they do prospers.
4 But not the wicked! They are like chaff driven by the wind.
5 Therefore the wicked will not survive judgment, nor will sinners in the assembly of the just.
6 The LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.
16 “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another,
17 ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’
19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”
