Daily Readings - 05/11/2026

^3:3 We are the real people of the circumcision, we who worship in accordance with the Spirit of God; we have our own glory from Christ Jesus without having to rely on a physical operation.

^3:4 If it came to relying on physical evidence, I should be fully qualified myself. Take any man who thinks he can rely on what is physical: I am even better qualified.

^3:5 I was born of the race of Israel and of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrew parents, and I was circumcised when I was eight days old. As for the Law, I was a Pharisee;

^3:6 as for working for religion, I was a persecutor of the Church; as far as the Law can make you perfect, I was faultless.

^3:7 But because of Christ, I have come to consider all these advantages that I had as disadvantages.

^3:8 Not only that, but I believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For him I have accepted the loss of everything, and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ

^105:1 Alleluia! Give thanks to Yahweh, call his name aloud, proclaim his deeds to the peoples!

^105:2 Sing to him, play to him, tell over all his marvels!

^105:3 Glory in his holy name, let the hearts that seek Yahweh rejoice!

^105:4 Seek Yahweh and his strength, seek his face untiringly;

^105:5 remember the marvels he has done, his wonders, the judgements from his mouth.

^105:6 Stock of Abraham his servant, sons of Jacob his chosen one!

^105:7 He is Yahweh our God, his authority is over all the earth.

^105:8 Remember his covenant for ever, his word of command for a thousand generations,

^105:9 the pact he made with Abraham, his oath to Isaac.

^105:10 He established it as a statute for Jacob, an everlasting covenant for Israel.

^105:11 ‘I give you a land,’ he said ‘Canaan, your allotted heritage.

^105:12 There where you were easily counted, few in number, strangers to the country.’

^105:13 They went from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people;

^105:14 he let no man oppress them, he punished kings on their behalf.

^105:15 ‘Do not touch my anointed ones,’ he said ‘do not harm my prophets!’

^105:16 Next, he called down famine on the country, he broke their staff, that is, their bread;

^105:17 he sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, sold as a slave.

^105:18 They tortured his feet with fetters, they put his neck in irons;

^105:19 time passed, Joseph’s oracle came true, Yahweh’s word proved him right.

^105:20 The king gave orders to release him, that master of nations set him free,

^105:21 putting him in charge of his household, in control of all he possessed,

^105:22 to train his officials as he thought fit and convert his elders into sages.

^105:23 Israel then migrated to Egypt, Jacob settled in the land of Ham.

^105:24 He made his people fertile and more vigorous than their oppressors,

^105:25 whose hearts he then disposed to hatred of his people and double-dealing with his servants.

^105:26 He sent his servant Moses, and Aaron, the man of his choice;

^105:27 there they displayed his signs, his wonders in the land of Ham.

^105:28 He sent darkness, darkness fell, but still they defied his word.

^105:29 He turned their rivers into blood, thus killing all their fish.

^105:30 Their country was overrun with frogs even in the royal apartments;

^105:31 he spoke: flies and mosquitoes swarmed throughout the country.

^105:32 He sent them hail instead of rain, fire swept across their land;

^105:33 he blasted their vines and fig trees, he shattered the trees throughout the country.

^105:34 He spoke: there came locusts, grasshoppers, more than you could count,

^105:35 eating every scrap of greenstuff, every blade their soil produced.

^105:36 Next, he struck down all the first-born in their land, the entire first-fruits of their fertility;

^105:37 then he led Israel out with gold and silver, and not one man of their tribes was left behind.

^105:38 Egypt was glad to see them go, they had filled her with alarm;

^105:39 he spread a cloud to cover them, and a fire to glow at night.

^105:40 They demanded food, he sent them quails, he satisfied them with the bread of heaven;

^105:41 he opened the rock, the waters gushed to flow through the desert like a river.

^105:42 Yes, faithful to the sacred promise given to his servant Abraham,

^105:43 he led his happy people forward, to joyful shouts from his chosen,

^105:44 and gave them the pagans’ territories. Where others had toiled, they took possession,

^105:45 on condition that they kept his statutes and remained obedient to his laws.

^15:1 The tax collectors and the sinners, meanwhile, were all seeking his company to hear what he had to say,

^15:2 and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’

^15:3 So he spoke this parable to them:

^15:4 ‘What man among you with a hundred sheep, losing one, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the missing one till he found it?

^15:5 And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders

^15:6 and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbours? “Rejoice with me,” he would say “I have found my sheep that was lost.”

^15:7 In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance.

^15:8 ‘Or again, what woman with ten drachmas would not, if she lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly till she found it?

^15:9 And then, when she had found it, call together her friends and neighbours? “Rejoice with me,” she would say “I have found the drachma I lost.”

^15:10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner.’