Daily Reading

Thus says the LORD, your redeemer,
    the Holy One of Israel:
I, the LORD, your God,
    teach you what is for your good,
    and lead you on the way you should go.
If you would hearken to my commandments,
    your prosperity would be like a river,
    and your vindication like the waves of the sea;
Your descendants would be like the sand,
    and those born of your stock like its grains,
Their name never cut off
    or blotted out from my presence.

R.    (see John 8:12)  Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
Blessed the man who follows not
    the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
    and meditates on his law day and night.
R.    Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
He is like a tree
    planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
    and whose leaves never fade.
    Whatever he does, prospers.
R.    Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
Not so the wicked, not so;
    they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
    but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R.    Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Lord will come; go out to meet him!
He is the prince of peace.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare this generation? 
It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance,
we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ 
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said,
‘He is possessed by a demon.’ 
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ 
But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”

I am the LORD, your God,
    who grasp your right hand;
It is I who say to you, “Fear not,
    I will help you.”
Fear not, O worm Jacob,
    O maggot Israel;
I will help you, says the LORD;
    your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
I will make of you a threshing sledge,
    sharp, new, and double-edged,
To thresh the mountains and crush them,
    to make the hills like chaff.
When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off
    and the storm shall scatter them.
But you shall rejoice in the LORD,
    and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain,
    their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, the LORD, will answer them;
    I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will open up rivers on the bare heights,
    and fountains in the broad valleys;
I will turn the desert into a marshland,
    and the dry ground into springs of water.
I will plant in the desert the cedar,
    acacia, myrtle, and olive;
I will set in the wasteland the cypress,
    together with the plane tree and the pine,
That all may see and know,
    observe and understand,
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
    the Holy One of Israel has created it.

R.    (8)  The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.
I will extol you, O my God and King,
    and I will bless your name forever and ever.
The LORD is good to all
    and compassionate toward all his works.
R.    The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
    and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
    and speak of your might.
R.    The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.
Let them make known to men your might
    and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
    and your dominion endures through all generations.
R.    The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Let the clouds rain down the Just One,
and the earth bring forth a Savior.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus said to the crowds:
“Amen, I say to you,
among those born of women
there has been none greater than John the Baptist;
yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 
From the days of John the Baptist until now,
the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence,
and the violent are taking it by force. 
All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John. 
And if you are willing to accept it,
he is Elijah, the one who is to come. 
Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

    Comfort, give comfort to my people,
        says your God.
    Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
        that her service is at an end,
        her guilt is expiated;
    Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
        double for all her sins.

        A voice cries out:
    In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
        Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
    Every valley shall be filled in,
        every mountain and hill shall be made low;
    The rugged land shall be made a plain,
        the rough country, a broad valley.
    Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
        and all people shall see it together;
        for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

    A voice says, “Cry out!”
        I answer, “What shall I cry out?”
    “All flesh is grass,
        and all their glory like the flower of the field.
    The grass withers, the flower wilts,
        when the breath of the LORD blows upon it.
        So then, the people is the grass.
    Though the grass withers and the flower wilts,
        the word of our God stands forever.”

    Go up onto a high mountain,
        Zion, herald of glad tidings;
    Cry out at the top of your voice,
        Jerusalem, herald of good news!
    Fear not to cry out
        and say to the cities of Judah:
        Here is your God!
    Here comes with power
        the Lord GOD,
        who rules by his strong arm;
    Here is his reward with him,
        his recompense before him.
    Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
        in his arms he gathers the lambs,
    Carrying them in his bosom,
        and leading the ewes with care.

R.    (see Isaiah 40:10ab)  The Lord our God comes with power.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
    sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name;
    announce his salvation, day after day.
R.    The Lord our God comes with power.
Tell his glory among the nations;
    among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
Say among the nations: The LORD is king;
    he governs the peoples with equity.
R.    The Lord our God comes with power.
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
    let the sea and what fills it resound;
    let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice.
R.    The Lord our God comes with power.
They shall exult before the LORD, for he comes;
    for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
    and the peoples with his constancy.
R.    The Lord our God comes with power.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The day of the Lord is near;
Behold, he comes to save us.
R. Alleluia, alleluia

Jesus said to his disciples:
“What is your opinion? 
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray? 
And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. 
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones be lost.”

    The desert and the parched land will exult;
        the steppe will rejoice and bloom.
    They will bloom with abundant flowers,
        and rejoice with joyful song.
    The glory of Lebanon will be given to them,
        the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
    They will see the glory of the LORD,
        the splendor of our God.
    Strengthen the hands that are feeble,
        make firm the knees that are weak,
    Say to those whose hearts are frightened:
        Be strong, fear not!
    Here is your God,
        he comes with vindication;
    With divine recompense
        he comes to save you.
    Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
        the ears of the deaf be cleared;
    Then will the lame leap like a stag,
        then the tongue of the mute will sing.

    Streams will burst forth in the desert,
        and rivers in the steppe.
    The burning sands will become pools,
        and the thirsty ground, springs of water;
    The abode where jackals lurk
        will be a marsh for the reed and papyrus.
    A highway will be there,
        called the holy way;
    No one unclean may pass over it,
        nor fools go astray on it.
    No lion will be there,
        nor beast of prey go up to be met upon it.
    It is for those with a journey to make,
        and on it the redeemed will walk.
    Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return
        and enter Zion singing,
        crowned with everlasting joy;
    They will meet with joy and gladness,
        sorrow and mourning will flee.

R.    (Isaiah 35:4f)  Our God will come to save us!
I will hear what God proclaims;
    the LORD –for he proclaims peace to his people.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
    glory dwelling in our land.
R.    Our God will come to save us!
Kindness and truth shall meet;
    justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
    and justice shall look down from heaven.
R.    Our God will come to save us!
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
    our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
    and salvation, along the way of his steps.
R.    Our God will come to save us!

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Behold the king will come, the Lord of the earth,
and he himself will lift the yoke of our captivity.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

One day as Jesus was teaching,
Pharisees and teachers of the law,
who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem,
were sitting there,
and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. 
And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed;
they were trying to bring him in and set him in his presence. 
But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd,
they went up on the roof
and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles
into the middle in front of Jesus. 
When Jesus saw their faith, he said,
“As for you, your sins are forgiven.” 

Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves,
“Who is this who speaks blasphemies? 
Who but God alone can forgive sins?” 
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply,
“What are you thinking in your hearts? 
Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”–
he said to the one who was paralyzed,
“I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” 

He stood up immediately before them,
picked up what he had been lying on,
and went home, glorifying God. 
Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God,
and, struck with awe, they said,
“We have seen incredible things today.”

Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery;
    put on the splendor of glory from God forever:
wrapped in the cloak of justice from God,
    bear on your head the mitre
    that displays the glory of the eternal name.
For God will show all the earth your splendor:
    you will be named by God forever
    the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship.
    
Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights;
    look to the east and see your children
gathered from the east and the west
    at the word of the Holy One,
    rejoicing that they are remembered by God.
Led away on foot by their enemies they left you:
    but God will bring them back to you
    borne aloft in glory as on royal thrones.
For God has commanded
    that every lofty mountain be made low,
and that the age-old depths and gorges
    be filled to level ground,
    that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God.
The forests and every fragrant kind of tree
    have overshadowed Israel at God’s command;
for God is leading Israel in joy
    by the light of his glory,
    with his mercy and justice for company.

R. (3)  The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
   we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
   and our tongue with rejoicing. 
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
  “The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
   we are glad indeed. 
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
   like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those who sow in tears
   shall reap rejoicing. 
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
   carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
   carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Brothers and sisters:
I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you, 
because of your partnership for the gospel 
from the first day until now.
I am confident of this,
that the one who began a good work in you
will continue to complete it 
until the day of Christ Jesus.
God is my witness, 
how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer:
that your love may increase ever more and more 
in knowledge and every kind of perception, 
to discern what is of value, 
so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 
filled with the fruit of righteousness 
that comes through Jesus Christ 
for the glory and praise of God.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, 
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, 
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
of Ituraea and Trachonitis, 
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, 
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, 
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, 
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
    A voice of one crying out in the desert:
    “Prepare the way of the Lord,
        make straight his paths.
    Every valley shall be filled
        and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
    The winding roads shall be made straight,
        and the rough ways made smooth,
    and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”