(Week 23 of the year: Wednesday)
IF YOU ARE TIED TO A WIFE, DO NOT LOOK FOR FREEDOM; IF YOU ARE FREE OF A WIFE, THEN DO NOT LOOK FOR ONE.
Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord; but I give counsel, as having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful.
I think therefore that this is good for the present necessity, that it is good for a man so to be.
Art thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.
But if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned: nevertheless, such shall have tribulation of the flesh. But I spare you.
This therefore I say, brethren; the time is short; it remaineth, that they also who have wives, be as if they had none;
And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
And they that use this world, as if they used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away.
V. The word of the Lord.
R. Thanks be to God.
