Daily Readings - 24/12/2026

^88:1 Yahweh my God, I call for help all day, I weep to you all night;

^88:2 may my prayer reach you hear my cries for help;

^88:3 for my soul is all troubled, my life is on the brink of Sheol;

^88:4 I am numbered among those who go down to the Pit, a man bereft of strength:

^88:5 a man alone, down among the dead, among the slaughtered in their graves, among those you have forgotten, those deprived of your protecting hand.

^88:6 You have plunged me to the bottom of the Pit, to its darkest, deepest place,

^88:7 weighted down by your anger, drowned beneath your waves. (pause)

^88:8 You have turned my friends against me and made me repulsive to them; in prison and unable to escape, my eyes are worn out with suffering.

^88:9 Yahweh, I invoke you all day, I stretch out my hands to you:

^88:10 are your marvels meant for the dead, can ghosts rise up to praise you?

^88:11 Who talks of your love in the grave, of your faithfulness in the place of perdition?

^88:12 Do they hear about your marvels in the dark, about your righteousness in the land of oblivion? (pause)

^88:13 But I am here, calling for your help, praying to you every morning:

^88:14 why do you reject me? Why do you hide your face from me?

^88:15 Wretched, slowly dying since my youth, I bore your terrors – now I am exhausted;

^88:16 your anger overwhelmed me, you destroyed me with your terrors

^88:17 which, like a flood, were round me, all day long, all together closing in on me.

^88:18 You have turned my friends and neighbours against me, now darkness is my one companion left.

^1:67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:

^1:68 ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel[*k] for he has visited his people, he has come to their rescue

^1:69 and he has raised up for us a power for salvation in the House of his servant David,

^1:70 even as he proclaimed, by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times,

^1:71 that he would save us from our enemies and from the hands of all who hate us.

^1:72 Thus he shows mercy to our ancestors, thus he remembers his holy covenant[*l]

^1:73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham

^1:74 that he would grant us, free from fear, to be delivered from the hands of our enemies,

^1:75 to serve him in holiness and virtue in his presence, all our days.

^1:76 And you, little child, you shall be called Prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way for him.

^1:77 To give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins;

^1:78 this by the tender mercy of our God who from on high Will bring the rising Sun to visit us,

^1:79 to give light to those who live in darkness and the shadow of death[*m] and to guide our feet into the way of peace.’

^62:1 About Zion I will not be silent, about Jerusalem I will not grow weary, until her integrity shines out like the dawn and her salvation flames like a torch.

^62:2 The nations then will see your integrity, all the kings your glory, and you will be called by a new name, one which the mouth of Yahweh will confer.

^62:3 You are to be a crown of splendour in the hand of Yahweh, a princely diadem in the hand of your God;

^62:4 no longer are you to be named ‘Forsaken’, nor your land ‘Abandoned’, but you shall be called ‘My Delight’ and your land ‘The Wedded’; for Yahweh takes delight in you and your land will have its wedding.

^62:5 Like a young man marrying a virgin, so will the one who built you wed you, and as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so will your God rejoice in you.

^88:1 Yahweh my God, I call for help all day, I weep to you all night;

^88:2 may my prayer reach you hear my cries for help;

^88:3 for my soul is all troubled, my life is on the brink of Sheol;

^88:4 I am numbered among those who go down to the Pit, a man bereft of strength:

^88:5 a man alone, down among the dead, among the slaughtered in their graves, among those you have forgotten, those deprived of your protecting hand.

^88:6 You have plunged me to the bottom of the Pit, to its darkest, deepest place,

^88:7 weighted down by your anger, drowned beneath your waves. (pause)

^88:8 You have turned my friends against me and made me repulsive to them; in prison and unable to escape, my eyes are worn out with suffering.

^88:9 Yahweh, I invoke you all day, I stretch out my hands to you:

^88:10 are your marvels meant for the dead, can ghosts rise up to praise you?

^88:11 Who talks of your love in the grave, of your faithfulness in the place of perdition?

^88:12 Do they hear about your marvels in the dark, about your righteousness in the land of oblivion? (pause)

^88:13 But I am here, calling for your help, praying to you every morning:

^88:14 why do you reject me? Why do you hide your face from me?

^88:15 Wretched, slowly dying since my youth, I bore your terrors – now I am exhausted;

^88:16 your anger overwhelmed me, you destroyed me with your terrors

^88:17 which, like a flood, were round me, all day long, all together closing in on me.

^88:18 You have turned my friends and neighbours against me, now darkness is my one companion left.

^13:16 Paul stood up, held up a hand for silence and began to speak:

^13:17 The God of our nation Israel chose our ancestors, and made our people great when they were living as foreigners in Egypt; then by divine power he led them out,

^13:22 Benjamin. After forty years, he deposed him and made David their king, of whom he approved in these words, “I have selected David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will carry out my whole purpose”.[*b]

^13:23 To keep his promise, God has raised up for Israel one of David’s descendants, Jesus, as Saviour,

^13:24 whose coming was heralded by John when he proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the whole people of Israel.

^13:25 Before John ended his career he said, “I am not the one you imagine me to be; that one is coming after me and I am not fit to undo his sandal”.

^1:1 A genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham:[*a]

^1:2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

^1:3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, Tamar being their mother, Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram,

^1:4 Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon,

^1:5 Salmon was the father of Boaz, Rahab being his mother, Boaz was the father of Obed, Ruth being his mother, Obed was the father of Jesse;

^1:6 and Jesse was the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,

^1:7 Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa,

^1:8 Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Azariah,

^1:9 Azariah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,

^1:10 Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah;

^1:11 and Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers. Then the deportation to Babylon took place.

^1:12 After the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

^1:13 Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor,

^1:14 Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud,

^1:15 Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob;

^1:16 and Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.

^1:17 The sum of generations is therefore: fourteen from Abraham to David; fourteen from David to the Babylonian deportation; and fourteen from the Babylonian deportation to Christ.

^1:18 This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph;[*b] but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

^1:19 Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally.

^1:20 He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit.

^1:21 She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save[*c] his people from their sins.’

^1:22 Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

^1:23 ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel,[*d] a name which means ‘God-is-with-us’.

^1:24 When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home

^1:25 and, though he had not had intercourse with her, she gave birth to a son; and he named him Jesus.