Daily Readings - 06/12/2026

^40:1 ‘Console my people, console them’ says your God.

^40:2 ‘Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her that her time of service is ended, that her sin is atoned for, that she has received from the hand of Yahweh double punishment for all her crimes.’

^40:3 A voice cries, ‘Prepare in the wilderness a way for Yahweh. Make a straight highway for our God across the desert.

^40:4 Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low, let every cliff become a plain, and the ridges a valley;

^40:5 then the glory of Yahweh shall be revealed and all mankind shall see it; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.’

^40:9 Go up on a high mountain, joyful messenger to Zion. Shout with a loud voice, joyful messenger to Jerusalem. Shout without fear, say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God’.

^40:10 Here is the Lord Yahweh coming with power, his arm subduing all things to him. The prize of his victory is with him, his trophies all go before him.

^40:11 He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewe.

^85:1 Yahweh, you favour your own country, you bring back the captives of Jacob,

^85:2 you take your people’s guilt away, you blot out all their sins, (pause)

^85:3 you retract all your anger, you abjure your fiery rage.

^85:4 Bring us back, God our saviour, master your resentment against us.

^85:5 Do you mean to be angry with us for ever, to prolong your wrath age after age?

^85:6 Will you not give us life again, for your people to rejoice in you?

^85:7 Yahweh, show us your love, grant us your saving help.

^85:8 I am listening. What is Yahweh saying? What God is saying means peace for his people, for his friends, if only they renounce their folly;

^85:9 for those who fear him, his saving help is near, and the glory will then live in our country.

^85:10 Love and Loyalty now meet, Righteousness and Peace now embrace;

^85:11 Loyalty reaches up from earth and Righteousness leans down from heaven.

^85:12 Yahweh himself bestows happiness as our soil gives its harvest,

^85:13 Righteousness always preceding him and Peace following his footsteps.

^1:1 The beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

^1:2 It is written in the book of the prophet Isaiah: Look, I am going to send my messenger before you; he will prepare your way.

^1:3 A voice cries in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.[*a]

^1:4 and so it was that John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

^1:5 All Judaea and all the people of Jerusalem made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins.

^1:6 John wore a garment of camel-skin, and he lived on locusts and wild honey.

^1:7 In the course of his preaching he said, ‘Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals.

^1:8 I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’