Daily Readings - 12/07/2026

^55:10 Yes, as the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating,

^55:11 so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.

^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!

^8:18 I think that what we suffer in this life can never be compared to the glory, as yet unrevealed, which is waiting for us.

^8:19 The whole creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal his sons.

^8:20 It was not for any fault on the part of creation that it was made unable to attain its purpose, it was made so by God; but creation still retains the hope

^8:21 of being freed, like us, from its slavery to decadence, to enjoy the same freedom and glory as the children of God.

^8:22 From the beginning till now the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth;

^8:23 and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free.

^13:1 That same day, Jesus left the house and sat by the lakeside,

^13:2 but such large crowds gathered round him that he got into a boat and sat there. The people all stood on the beach,

^13:3 and he told them many things in parables.

^13:4 As he sowed, some seeds fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate them up.

^13:5 Others fell on patches of rock where they found little soil and sprang up straight away, because there was no depth of earth;

^13:6 but as soon as the sun came up they were scorched and, not having any roots, they withered away.

^13:7 Others fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.

^13:8 Others fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

^13:9 Listen, anyone who has ears!’

^13:10 Then the disciples went up to him and asked, ‘Why do you talk to them in parables?’

^13:11 ‘Because’ he replied ‘the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are revealed to you, but they are not revealed to them.

^13:12 For anyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

^13:13 The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding.

^13:14 So in their case this prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled: You will listen and listen again, but not understand, see and see again, but not perceive.

^13:15 For the heart of this nation has grown coarse, their ears are dull of hearing, and they have shut their eyes, for fear they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and be converted and be healed by me.[*a]

^13:16 ‘But happy are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear!

^13:17 I tell you solemnly, many prophets and holy men longed to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.

^13:18 ‘You, therefore, are to hear the parable of the sower.

^13:19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom without understanding, the evil one comes and carries off what was sown in his heart: this is the man who received the seed on the edge of the path.

^13:20 The one who received it on patches of rock is the man who hears the word and welcomes it at once with joy.

^13:21 But he has no root in him, he does not last; let some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, and he falls away at once.

^13:22 The one who received the seed in thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this world and the lure of riches choke the word and so he produces nothing.

^13:23 And the one who received the seed in rich soil is the man who hears the word and understands it; he is the one who yields a harvest and produces now a hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty.’