Daily Readings - 13/12/2025

^48:1 Then the prophet Elijah arose like a fire, his word flaring like a torch.

^48:2 It was he who brought famine on them, and who decimated them in his zeal.

^48:3 By the word of the Lord, he shut up the heavens, he also, three times, brought down fire.

^48:4 How glorious you were in your miracles, Elijah! Has anyone reason to boast as you have?-

^48:9 taken up in the whirlwind of fire, in a chariot with fiery horses;

^48:10 designated in the prophecies of doom to allay God’s wrath before the fury breaks, to turn the hearts of fathers towards their children,[*a] and to restore the tribes of Jacob,

^48:11 Happy shall they be who see you, and those who have fallen asleep in love; for we too will have life.

^80:1 Shepherd of Israel, listen, you who lead Joseph like a flock; enthroned on the cherubs, shine

^80:2 on Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh;[*a] rouse your strength, come to us and save us!

^80:3 Yahweh Sabaoth, bring us back, let your face smile on us and we shall be safe.

^80:4 Yahweh Sabaoth, how much longer will you smoulder at your people’s prayer?

^80:5 Having fed us on the bread of tears, having made us drink them in such measure,

^80:6 you now let our neighbours quarrel over us and our enemies deride us.

^80:7 Yahweh Sabaoth, bring us back, let your face smile on us and we shall be safe.

^80:8 There was a vine: you uprooted it from Egypt; to plant it, you drove out other nations,

^80:9 you cleared a space where it could grow, it took root and filled the whole country.

^80:10 It covered the mountains with its shade, the cedars of God with its branches,

^80:11 its tendrils extended to the sea, its offshoots all the way to the river.[*b]

^80:12 Why have you destroyed its fences? Now anyone can go and steal its grapes,

^80:13 the forest boar can ravage it and wild animals eat it.

^80:14 Please, Yahweh Sabaoth, relent! Look down from heaven, look at this vine, visit it,

^80:15 protect what your own right hand has planted.

^80:16 They threw it on the fire like dung, but one look of reproof from you and they will be doomed.

^80:17 May your hand protect the man at your right, the son of man who has been authorised by you.

^80:18 We shall never turn from you again; our life renewed, we shall invoke your name.

^80:19 Yahweh Sabaoth, bring us back, let your face smile on us and we shall be safe.

^17:10 And the disciples put this question to him, ‘Why do the scribes say then that Elijah has to come first?’

^17:11 ‘True;’ he replied ‘Elijah is to come to see that everything is once more as it should be;

^17:12 however, I tell you that Elijah has come already and they did not recognise him but treated him as they pleased; and the Son of Man will suffer similarly at their hands.’

^17:13 The disciples understood then that he had been speaking of John the Baptist.