manliness

¹³Be vigilant. Stand with faith. Act manfully and be strengthened.

¹¹When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I understood like a child, I thought like a child. But when I became a man, I put aside the things of a child.

¹Now the days of David had drawn near, so that he would die, and he instructed his son Solomon, saying: ²“I am entering the way of all the earth. Be strengthened and be a good man.

¹Blessed is the man who has not followed the counsel of the impious, and has not remained in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the chair of pestilence. ²But his will is with the law of the Lord, and he will meditate on his law, day and night. ³And he will be like a tree that has been planted beside running waters, which will provide its fruit in its time, and its leaf will not fall away, and all things whatsoever that he does will prosper.

³Gird your waist like a man. I will question you, and you must answer me.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and handed himself over for her, ²⁶so that he might sanctify her, washing her clean by water and the Word of life, ²⁷so that he might offer her to himself as a glorious Church, not having any spot or wrinkle or any such thing, so that she would be holy and immaculate. ²⁸So, too, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

¹³Be vigilant. Stand with faith. Act manfully and be strengthened. ¹⁴Let all that is yours be immersed in charity.

³²Also, from the sons of Issachar, there were learned men, who knew each of the times, in order to anticipate what Israel ought to do, two hundred leaders. And all the remainder of the tribe were following their counsel.

¹²As for my people, their oppressors have despoiled them, and women have ruled over them. My people, who call you blessed, the same are deceiving you and disrupting the path of your steps.

²⁸Just like a city lying in the open and without surrounding walls, so also is a man who is unable to restrain his own spirit in speaking.

¹⁷Iron sharpens iron, and a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

⁷Look down upon each of the arrogant and confound them, and crush the impious in their place.

⁹Behold, I am instructing you. Be strengthened, and be steadfast. Do not dread, and do not fear. For the Lord your God is with you in all things, wherever you may go.”

²⁰Brothers, do not choose to have the minds of children. Instead, be free of malice like infants, but be mature in your minds.

⁸I will reveal to you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires from you, and how to act with judgment, and to love mercy, and to walk carefully with your God.

⁷For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of virtue, and of love, and of self-restraint.

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think over you, says the Lord: thoughts of peace and not of affliction, so that I may give you patience and an end.