Daily Readings - 20/02/2026

^58:1 Shout for all you are worth, raise your voice like a trumpet. Proclaim their faults to my people, their sins to the House of Jacob.

^58:2 They seek me day after day, they long to know my ways, like a nation that wants to act with integrity and not ignore the law of its God. They ask me for laws that are just, they long for God to draw near:

^58:3 ‘Why should we fast if you never see it, why do penance if you never notice?’ Look, you do business on your fastdays, you oppress all your workmen;

^58:4 look, you quarrel and squabble when you fast and strike the poor man with your fist. Fasting like yours today will never make your voice heard on high.

^58:5 Is that the sort of fast that pleases me, a truly penitential day for men? Hanging your head like a reed, lying down on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call fasting, a day acceptable to Yahweh?

^58:6 Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks – to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke,

^58:7 to share your bread with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the man you see to be naked and not turn from your own kin?

^58:8 Then will your light shine like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. Your integrity will go before you and the glory of Yahweh behind you.

^58:9 Cry, and Yahweh will answer; call, and he will say, ‘I am here’. If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist, the wicked word,

^51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness, in your great tenderness wipe away my faults;

^51:2 wash me clean of my guilt, purify me from my sin.

^51:3 For I am well aware of my faults, I have my sin constantly in mind,

^51:4 having sinned against none other than you, having done what you regard as wrong. You are just when you pass sentence on me, blameless when you give judgement.

^51:5 You know I was born guilty, a sinner from the moment of conception.

^51:6 Yet, since you love sincerity of heart, teach me the secrets of wisdom.

^51:7 Purify me with hyssop[*a] until I am clean; wash me until I am whiter than snow.

^51:8 Instil some joy and gladness into me, let the bones you have crushed rejoice again.

^51:9 Hide your face from my sins, wipe out all my guilt.

^51:10 God, create a clean heart in me, put into me a new and constant spirit,

^51:11 do not banish me from your presence, do not deprive me of your holy spirit.

^51:12 Be my saviour again, renew my joy, keep my spirit steady and willing;

^51:13 and I shall teach transgressors the way to you, and to you the sinners will return.

^51:14 Save me from death, God my saviour, and my tongue will acclaim your righteousness;

^51:15 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will speak out your praise.

^51:16 Sacrifice gives you no pleasure, were I to offer holocaust, you would not have it.

^51:17 My sacrifice is this broken spirit, you will not scorn this crushed and broken heart.

^51:18 Show your favour graciously to Zion, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.[*b]

^51:19 Then there will be proper sacrifice to please you – holocaust and whole oblation – and young bulls to be offered on your altar.

^9:14 Then John’s[*e] disciples came to him and said, ‘Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?’

^9:15 Jesus replied, ‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast.