Meditations for the Feast of St. James the Apostle (May 3): "A man who listens to the message but never acts upon it is like one who looks in a mirror at the face nature gave him. He glances at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he looked like." (James 1:23)

(2/6) "A man may think he is religious but if he has no control over his tongue he is deceiving himself; that man's religion is futile. The kind of religion which is without stain or fault is this: go to to the help of orphans and widows in their distress..." (1:26-27)

(3/6) "No man can subdue the tongue. It is an intractable evil, charged with deadly venom. We use it to sing the praises of Our Lord and Father, and we use it to invoke curses upon our fellow-men who are made in God's likeness...My brothers, this should not be." (3:8-12)

(4/6) "What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Do they not spring from the aggressiveness of your bodily desires? You want something which you cannot have, and so you are bent on murder; you are envious and cannot attain your ambition, and so you quarrel and fight." (4:1-2)

(5/6) "You boast and brag, and all such boasting is wrong. Well then, the man who knows the good he ought to do and does not do it is a sinner. .. You have great possessions. Weep and wail over the miserable fate descending on you." (4:15-5:1)