Sirach 2

Son, when you apply yourself to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare your soul for temptation.

Humble your heart, and persevere. Incline your ear, and accept words of understanding. And you should not hurry away in the time of distress.

Endure steadfastly for God. Join yourself to God, and persevere, so that your life may increase in the very end.

Accept everything that will happen to you, and persevere in your sorrow, and have patience in your humiliation.

For gold and silver are tested in fire, yet truly, acceptable men are tested in the furnace of humiliation.

Believe God, and he will restore you to health. And straighten your way, and hope in him. Observe his fear, and grow old in it.

You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy. And do not turn away from him, lest you fall.

You who fear the Lord, believe in him. And your reward will not be taken away.

You who fear the Lord, hope in him. And mercy will approach you, to your delight.

You who fear the Lord, love him. And your hearts will be illuminated.

My sons, consider the nations of men, and know that not one of them hoped in the Lord and was confounded.

For who has remained in his commandment and been abandoned? Or who has called upon him, and yet he despised him?

For God is upright and merciful, and he will forgive sins in the day of tribulation. And he is the Protector to all those who seek him in truth.

Woe to the duplicitous heart, and to the wicked lips, and to the hands that do evil, and to the sinner who walks the earth by two ways!

Woe to the dissolute in heart, who do not trust God! For, as a result, they will not be protected by him.

Woe to those who have lost endurance, and who have abandoned upright ways, and who have turned aside to depraved ways!

And what will they do when the Lord begins to examine them?

Those who fear the Lord will not be unbelieving toward his Word. And those who love him will keep to his way.

Those who fear the Lord will seek the things that are well-pleasing to him. And those who love him will be filled with his law.

Those who fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and they will sanctify their souls in his sight.

Those who fear the Lord keep his commandments, and they will have patience even until his examination,

saying: "If we do not do penance, then we will fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men."

For according to his greatness, so also is his mercy with him.