Daily Readings - 23/04/2026

^8:26 The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, ‘Be ready to set out at noon along the road that goes from Jerusalem down to Gaza, the desert road’.

^8:27 So he set off on his journey. Now it happened that an Ethiopian had been on pilgrimage to Jerusalem; he was a eunuch and an officer at the court of the kandake, or queen, of Ethiopia, and was in fact her chief treasurer.

^8:28 He was now on his way home; and as he sat in his chariot he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

^8:29 The Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go up and meet that chariot’.

^8:30 When Philip ran up, he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’

^8:31 ‘How can I’ he replied ‘unless I have someone to guide me?’ So he invited Philip to get in and sit by his side.

^8:32 Now the passage of scripture he was reading was this: Like a sheep that is led to the slaughter-house, like a lamb that is dumb in front of its shearers, like these he never opens his mouth.

^8:33 He has been humiliated and has no one to defend him. Who will ever talk about his descendants, since his life on earth has been cut short![*b]

^8:34 The eunuch turned to Philip and said, ‘Tell me, is the prophet referring to himself or someone else?’

^8:35 Starting, therefore, with this text of scripture Philip proceeded to explain the Good News of Jesus to him.

^8:36 Further along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, ‘Look, there is some water here; is there anything to stop me being baptised?'[*c]

^8:38 He ordered the chariot to stop, then Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water and Philip baptised him.

^8:39 But after they had come up out of the water again Philip was taken away by the Spirit of the Lord, and the eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing.

^8:40 Philip found that he had reached Azotus and continued his journey proclaiming the Good News in every town as far as Caesarea.

^65:1 Praise is rightfully yours, God, in Zion. Vows to you must be fulfilled,

^65:2 for you answer prayer. All flesh must come to you

^65:3 with all its sins; though our faults overpower us, you blot them out.

^65:4 Happy the man you choose, whom you invite to live in your courts. Fill us with the good things of your house, of your holy Temple.

^65:5 Your righteousness repays us with marvels, God our saviour, hope of all the ends of the earth and the distant islands.

^65:6 Your strength holds the mountains up, such is the power that wraps you;

^65:7 you calm the clamour of the ocean, the clamour of its waves. The nations are in uproar,

^65:8 in panic those who live at the ends of the world, as your miracles bring shouts of joy to the portals of morning and evening.

^65:9 You visit the earth and water it, you load it with riches; God’s rivers brim with water to provide their grain.

^65:10 This is how you provide it: by drenching its furrows, by levelling its ridges, by softening it with showers, by blessing the first-fruits.

^65:11 You crown the year with your bounty, abundance flows wherever you pass;

^65:12 the desert pastures overflow, the hillsides are wrapped in joy,

^65:13 the meadows are dressed in flocks, the valleys are clothed in wheat, what shouts of joy, what singing!

^6:44 ‘No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise him up at the last day.

^6:45 It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God,[*b] and to hear the teaching of the Father, and learn from it, is to come to me.

^6:46 Not that anybody has seen the Father, except the one who comes from God: he has seen the Father.

^6:47 I tell you most solemnly, everybody who believes has eternal life.

^6:48 I am the bread of life.

^6:49 Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead;

^6:50 but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die.

^6:51 I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’