Daily Readings - 24/10/2026

^4:7 Each one of us, however, has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ allotted it.

^4:8 It was said that he would: When he ascended to the height, he captured prisoners, he gave gifts to men.[*a]

^4:9 When it says, ‘he ascended’, what can it mean if not that he descended right down to the lower regions of the earth?

^4:10 The one who rose higher than all the heavens to fill all things is none other than the one who descended.

^4:11 And to some, his gift was that they should be apostles; to some, prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers;

^4:12 so that the saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ.

^4:13 In this way we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God, until we become the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.

^4:14 Then we shall not be children any longer, or tossed one way and another and carried along by every wind of doctrine, at the mercy of all the tricks men play and their cleverness in practising deceit.

^4:15 If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ, who is the head

^4:16 by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to its function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love.

^121:1 I lift my eyes to the mountains: where is help to come from?

^121:2 Help comes to me from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth.

^121:3 No letting our footsteps slip! This guard of yours, he does not doze!

^121:4 The guardian of Israel does not doze or sleep.

^121:5 Yahweh guards you, shades you. With Yahweh at your right hand

^121:6 sun cannot strike you down by day, nor moon at night.

^121:7 Yahweh guards you from harm, he guards your lives,

^121:8 he guards you leaving, coming back, now and for always.

^13:1 It was just about this time that some people arrived and told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices[*a].

^13:2 At this he said to them, ‘Do you suppose these Galileans who suffered like that were greater sinners than any other Galileans?

^13:3 They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.

^13:4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell and killed them? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem?

^13:5 They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.’

^13:6 He told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none.

^13:7 He said to the man who looked after the vineyard, “Look here, for three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?”

^13:8 “Sir,” the man replied “leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it:

^13:9 it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.”‘

^22:20 “You must not molest the stranger or oppress him, for you lived as strangers in the land of Egypt.

^22:21 You must not be harsh with the widow, or with the orphan;

^22:22 if you are harsh with them, they will surely cry out to me, and be sure I shall hear their cry;

^22:23 my anger will flare and I shall kill you with the sword, your own wives will be widows, your own children orphans.

^22:24 “If you lend money to any of my people, to any poor man among you, you must not play the usurer with him: you must not demand interest from him.

^22:25 “If you take another’s cloak as a pledge, you must give it back to him before sunset.

^22:26 It is all the covering he has; it is the cloak he wraps his body in; what else would he sleep in? If he cries to me, I will listen, for I am full of pity.

^17:1 Yahweh, hear the plea of virtue, listen to my appeal, lend an ear to my prayer, my lips free from dishonesty.

^17:2 From your presence will my sentence come, your eyes are fixed on what is right.

^17:3 You probe my heart, examine me at night, you test me yet find nothing, no murmuring from me: my mouth has never sinned

^17:4 as most men’s do. No, I have treasured the words from your lips; in the path prescribed

^17:5 walking deliberately in your footsteps, so that my feet do not slip.

^17:6 I invoke you, God, and you answer me; turn your ear to me, hear what I say,

^17:7 display your marvellous kindness, saviour of fugitives! From those who revolt against you

^17:8 guard me like the pupil of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings

^17:9 from the onslaughts of the wicked. My enemies cluster round me, breathing hostility;

^17:10 entrenched in their fat, their mouths utter arrogant claims;

^17:11 now they are closing in, they have eyes for nothing but to see me overthrown.

^17:12 They look like a lion eager to tear to pieces, like a young lion crouching in its hide.

^17:13 Rise, Yahweh, subdue him face to face, rescue my soul from the wicked with your sword,

^17:14 with your hand, Yahweh, rescue me from men, from the sort of men whose lot is here and now. Cram their bellies from your stores, give them all the sons that they could wish for, let them have a surplus to leave their children!

^17:15 For me the reward of virtue is to see your face, and, on waking, to gaze my fill on your likeness.

^22:34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together

^22:35 and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question,

^22:36 ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’

^22:37 Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

^22:38 This is the greatest and the first commandment.

^22:39 The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself.

^22:40 On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.’