Today’s first passages comes from the book of Sirach. I was inspired to use it thanks to this comment by Gunner Q about how daughters should be viewed as a potential liability. He is not the first to make this observation:
9Â A daughter keeps her father secretly wakeful,
    and worry over her robs him of sleep;
when she is young, lest she do not marry,
    or if married, lest she be hated;
10Â while a virgin, lest she be defiled
    or become pregnant in her fatherâs house;
or having a husband, lest she prove unfaithful,
    or, though married, lest she be barren.
11Â Keep strict watch over a headstrong daughter,
    lest she make you a laughingstock to your enemies,
a byword in the city and notorious among the people,
    and put you to shame before the great multitude.
(Sirach 42:9-11)
An exchange started to develop in my most recent post. Lest it get any worse, I quote from this part of the gospel of Matthew as a refresher course:
Judge not, that you be not judged. 2Â For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3Â Why do you see the speck that is in your brotherâs eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4Â Or how can you say to your brother, âLet me take the speck out of your eye,â when there is the log in your own eye? 5Â You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brotherâs eye.
(Matthew 7:1-5)
Finally, these words of hope in the Lenten season:
16Â From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer. 17Â Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. 18Â All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19Â that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20Â So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21Â For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:16-21)
