Daily Readings - 15/01/2026

^44:1 God, we have heard with our own ears, our ancestors have told us of the deeds you performed in their days, in days long ago,

^44:2 by your hand. To put them in the land you dispossessed the nations, you harried the peoples to make room for them;

^44:3 it was not by their swords they won the land, it was not by their arms they gained the victory: it was your right hand, your arm and the light of your face – because you loved them.

^44:4 You it was, my King, my God, who won those victories for Jacob;

^44:5 through you we trampled down our enemies, through your name we subdued our aggressors.

^44:6 My trust was not in my bow, my sword did not gain me victory:

^44:7 we conquered our enemies through you, you, who defeated all who hated us –

^44:8 our boast was always of God, we praised your name without ceasing. (Pause)

^44:9 Yet now you abandon and scorn us, you no longer march with our armies,

^44:10 you allow the enemy to push us back, and let those who hate us raid us when it suits them.

^44:11 You let us go to the slaughterhouse like sheep, you scatter us among the nations;

^44:12 you sell your people for next to nothing, and make no profit from the bargain.

^44:13 Thanks to you, our neighbours insult us, all those around us make us their butt and laughing-stock;

^44:14 you make us a byword to pagans, a thing to make them toss their heathen heads.

^44:15 All day long I brood on this disgrace, my face covered in shame,

^44:16 under a shower of insult and blasphemy, a display of hatred and revenge.

^44:17 All this happened to us though we had not forgotten you, though we had not been disloyal to your covenant;

^44:18 though our hearts had not turned away, though our steps had not left your path:

^44:19 yet you crushed us in the place where the jackals live, and threw the shadow of death over us.

^44:20 Had we forgotten the name of our own God and stretched out our hands to a foreign one,

^44:21 would not God have found this out, he who knows the secrets of the heart?

^44:22 No, it is for your sake we are being massacred daily, and counted as sheep for the slaughter.

^44:23 Wake up, Lord! Why are you asleep? Awake! Do not abandon us for good.

^44:24 Why do you hide your face, and forget we are wretched and exploited?

^44:25 For we are bowed in the dust, our bodies crushed to the ground.

^44:26 Rise! Come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your love.

^1:40 A leper came to him and pleaded on his knees: ‘If you want to’ he said ‘you can cure me’.

^1:41 Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. ‘Of course I want to!’ he said. ‘Be cured!’

^1:42 And the leprosy left him at once and he was cured.

^1:43 Jesus immediately sent him away and sternly ordered him,

^1:44 ‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery’.

^1:45 The man went away, but then started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside in places where nobody lived. Even so, people from all around would come to him.