Daily Readings - 16/09/2026

^12:31 Be ambitious for the higher gifts. And I am going to show you a way that is better than any of them.

^13:1 If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing.

^13:2 If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fulness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all.

^13:3 If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but am without love, it will do me no good whatever.

^13:4 Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited;

^13:5 it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful.

^13:6 Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth;

^13:7 it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.

^13:8 Love does not come to an end. But if there are gifts of prophecy, the time will come when they must fail; or the gift of languages, it will not continue for ever; and knowledge – for this, too, the time will come when it must fail.

^13:9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophesying is imperfect;

^13:10 but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will disappear.

^13:11 When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and think like a child, and argue like a child, but now I am a man, all childish ways are put behind me.

^13:12 Now we are seeing a dim reflection in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face. The knowledge that I have now is imperfect; but then I shall know as fully as I am known.

^13:13 In short, there are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.

^32:1 Happy the man whose fault is forgiven, whose sin is blotted out;

^32:2 happy the man whom Yahweh accuses of no guilt, whose spirit is incapable of deceit!

^32:3 All the time I kept silent, my bones were wasting away with groans, day in, day out;

^32:4 day and night your hand lay heavy on me; my heart grew parched as stubble in summer drought (Pause)

^32:5 At last I admitted to you I had sinned; no longer concealing my guilt, I said, ‘I will go to Yahweh and confess my fault’. And you, you have forgiven the wrong I did, have pardoned my sin. (Pause)

^32:6 That is why each of your servants prays to you in time of trouble; even if floods come rushing down, they will never reach him.

^32:7 You are a hiding place for me, you guard me when in trouble, you surround me with songs of deliverance. (Pause)

^32:8 I will instruct you, and teach you the way to go; I will watch over you and be your adviser.

^32:9 Do not be like senseless horse or mule that need bit and bridle to curb their spirit (to let you get near them).

^32:10 Many torments await the wicked, but grace enfolds the man who trusts in Yahweh.

^32:11 Rejoice in Yahweh, exult, you virtuous, shout for joy, all upright hearts.

^7:31 ‘What description, then, can I find for the men of this generation? What are they like?

^7:32 They are like children shouting to one another while they sit in the market place: “We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn’t dance; we sang dirges, and you wouldn’t cry”.

^7:33 ‘For John the Baptist comes, not eating bread, not drinking wine, and you say, “He is possessed”.

^7:34 The Son of Man comes, eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”.

^7:35 Yet Wisdom has been proved right by all her children.’