Daily Readings - 15/03/2026

^22:1 My God, my God, why have you deserted me? How far from saving me, the words I groan!

^22:2 I call all day, my God, but you never answer, all night long I call and cannot rest.

^22:3 Yet, Holy One, you who make your home in the praises of Israel,

^22:4 in you our fathers put their trust, they trusted and you rescued them;

^22:5 they called to you for help and they were saved, they never trusted you in vain.

^22:6 Yet here am I, now more worm than man, scorn of mankind, jest of the people,

^22:7 all who see me jeer at me, they toss their heads and sneer,

^22:8 ‘He relied on Yahweh, let Yahweh save him! If Yahweh is his friend, let Him rescue him!’

^22:9 Yet you drew me out of the womb, you entrusted me to my mother’s breasts;

^22:10 placed on your lap from my birth, from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

^22:11 Do not stand aside: trouble is near, I have no one to help me!

^22:12 A herd of bulls surrounds me, strong bulls of Bashan close in on me;

^22:13 their jaws are agape for me, like lions tearing and roaring.

^22:14 I am like water draining away, my bones are all disjointed, my heart is like wax, melting inside me;

^22:16 A pack of dogs surrounds me, a gang of Villains closes me in; they tie me hand and foot

^22:17 I can count every one of my bones, and there they glare at me, gloating;

^22:18 they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothes.

^22:19 Do not stand aside, Yahweh. O my strength, come quickly to my help;

^22:20 rescue my soul from the sword, my dear life from the paw of the dog,

^22:21 save me from the lion’s mouth, my poor soul from the wild bulls’ horns!

^22:22 Then I shall proclaim your name to my brothers, praise you in full assembly:

^22:23 you who fear Yahweh, praise him! Entire race of Jacob, glorify him! Entire race of Israel, revere him!

^22:24 For he has not despised or disdained the poor man in his poverty, has not hidden his face from him, but has answered him when he called.

^22:25 You are the theme of my praise in the Great Assembly, I perform my vows in the presence of those who fear him.

^22:26 The poor will receive as much as they want to eat. Those who seek Yahweh will praise him. Long life to their hearts!

^22:27 The whole earth, from end to end, will remember and come back to Yahweh; all the families of the nations will bow down before him.

^22:28 For Yahweh reigns, the ruler of nations!

^22:29 Before him all the prosperous of the earth will bow down, before him will bow all who go down to the dust. And my soul will live for him,

^22:30 my children will serve him; men will proclaim the Lord to generations

^22:31 still to come, his righteousness to a people yet unborn. All this he has done.

^5:8 You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of light,

^5:9 for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth.

^5:10 Try to discover what the Lord wants of you,

^5:11 having nothing to do with the futile works of darkness but exposing them by contrast.

^5:12 The things which are done in secret are things that ashamed even to speak of;

^5:13 but anything exposed by the light will be illuminated

^5:14 and anything illuminated turns into light. That is why it is said:[*b] Wake up from your sleep, rise from the dead, Christ will shine on you.

^9:1 As he went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.

^9:2 His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?’

^9:3 ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned,’ Jesus answered ‘he was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

^9:4 ‘As long as the day lasts I must carry out the work of the one who sent me; the night will soon be here when no one can work.

^9:5 As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.’

^9:6 Having said this, he spat on the ground, made a paste with the spittle, put this over the eyes of the blind man.

^9:7 and said to him, ‘Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam[*a] (a name that means ‘sent’). So the blind man went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored.

^9:8 His neighbours and people who earlier had seen him begging said, ‘Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?’

^9:9 Some said, ‘Yes, it is the same one’. Others said, ‘No, he only looks like him’. The man himself said, ‘I am the man’.

^9:10 So they said to him, ‘Then how do your eyes come to be open?’

^9:11 ‘The man called Jesus’ he answered ‘made a paste, daubed my eyes with it and said to me, “Go and wash at Siloam”; so I went, and when I washed I could see.’

^9:12 They asked, ‘Where is he?’ ‘I don’t know’ he answered.

^9:13 They brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees.

^9:14 It had been a sabbath day when Jesus made the paste and opened the man’s eyes,

^9:15 so when the Pharisees asked him how he had come to see, he said, ‘He put a paste on my eyes, and I washed, and I can see’.

^9:16 Then some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man cannot be from God: he does not keep the sabbath’. Others said, ‘How could a sinner produce signs like this?’ And there was disagreement among them.

^9:17 So they spoke to the blind man again, ‘What have you to say about him yourself, now that he has opened your eyes?’ ‘He is a prophet’ replied the man.

^9:18 However, the Jews would not believe that the man had been blind and had gained his sight, without first sending for his parents and

^9:19 asking them, ‘Is this man really your son who you say was born blind? If so, how is it that he is now able to see?’

^9:20 His parents answered, ‘We know he is our son and we know he was born blind,

^9:21 but we don’t know how it is that he can see now, or who opened his eyes. He is old enough: let him speak for himself.’

^9:22 His parents spoke like this out of fear of the Jews, who had already agreed to expel from the synagogue anyone who should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ.

^9:23 This was why his parents said, ‘He is old enough; ask him’.

^9:24 So the Jews again sent for the man and said to him, ‘Give glory to God![*b] For our part, we know that this man is a sinner.’

^9:25 The man answered, ‘I don’t know if he is a sinner; I only know that I was blind and now I can see’.

^9:26 They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’

^9:27 He replied, ‘I have told you once and you wouldn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it all again? Do you want to become his disciples too?’

^9:28 At this they hurled abuse at him: ‘You can be his disciple,’ they said ‘we are disciples of Moses:

^9:29 we know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don’t know where he comes from’.

^9:30 The man replied, ‘Now here is an astonishing thing! He has opened my eyes, and you don’t know where he comes from!

^9:31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but God does listen to men who are devout and do his will.

^9:32 Ever since the world began it is unheard of for anyone to open the eyes of a man who was born blind;

^9:33 if this man were not from God, he couldn’t do a thing.’

^9:34 ‘Are you trying to teach us,’ they replied ‘and you a sinner through and through, since you were born!’ And they drove him away.

^9:35 Jesus heard they had driven him away, and when he found him he said to him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’

^9:36 ‘Sir,’ the man replied ‘tell me who he is so that I may believe in him.’

^9:37 Jesus said, ‘You are looking at him; he is speaking to you’.

^9:38 The man said, ‘Lord, I believe’, and worshipped him.

^9:39 Jesus said: ‘It is for judgement that I have come into this world, so that those without sight may see and those with sight turn blind’.

^9:40 Hearing this, some Pharisees who were present said to him, ‘We are not blind, surely?’

^9:41 Jesus replied: ‘Blind? If you were, you would not be guilty, but since you say, “We see”, your guilt remains.