First ReadingWisdom 11:22—12:2*
From the Book of Wisdom
22Because the whole world before you is as a grain in a balance,and as a drop of dew that comes down upon the earth in the morning.23But you have mercy on all men, because you have power to do all things,and you overlook the sins of men to the end that they may repent.24For you love all things that are,and abhor none of the things which you made;For you never would have formed anything if you hated it.25How would anything have endured unless you had willed it?Or that which was not called by you, how would it have been preserved?26But you spare all things, because they are yours,O Sovereign Lord, you who love the living.1For your incorruptible spirit is in all things.2Therefore you convict little by little those who fall from the right way,and, putting them in remembrance by the things wherein they sin, you admonish them,that escaping from their wickedness they may believe in you, O Lord.