A reading from the book of Wisdom.

God did not make death,
nor does God rejoice in the destruction of the living.
For God fashioned all things
that they might have life.
The creatures of this world have health in them,
and there is no fatal poison in them;
And Sheol has no power over the earth,
for justice is undying.
For God formed mortals to be imperishable;
in the image of the divine nature God made them.
But by the envy of the Devil, death entered the world,
as those who are the Devil’s partners will discover.

The Word of God recorded in the book of Wisdom.

R: Restless is the heart until it comes to rest in you.
All the earth shall remember and return to our God.

You have been our refuge through all time,
from one generation to the next —
before the mountains were born, or the earth brought forth,
you are God, without beginning or end.

R: Restless is the heart until it comes to rest in you.
All the earth shall remember and return to our God.

To your eyes a thousand years are like a day,
no more than a watch in the night,
You sweep us away like a dream,
like the grass that springs green in the morning but faded by night.

R: Restless is the heart until it comes to rest in you. 
All the earth shall remember and return to our God.

Make us know our life’s shortness
that we may gain true wisdom of heart,
In the morning, fill us with your love.

R: Restless is the heart until it comes to rest in you. 
All the earth shall remember and return to our God.