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Daily Readings - 31/12/2026

THURSDAY. SEVENTH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE NATIVITY

Christmas Week I White

First Reading : 1 Jn 2, 18-21

Fourth condition: be on guard against the enemies of Christ

2:18 Children, these are the last days; you were told that an Antichrist must come, and now several antichrists have already appeared; we know from this that these are the last days.

2:19 Those rivals of Christ came out of our own number, but they had never really belonged; if they had belonged, they would have stayed with us; but they left us, to prove that not one of them ever belonged to us.

2:20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and have all received the knowledge.

2:21 It is not because you do not know the truth that I am writing to you but rather because you know it already and know that no lie can come from the truth.

Psalm : Ps 96 (95)

R// Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice.

Yahweh, king and judge

96:1 Sing Yahweh a new song! Sing to Yahweh, all the earth!

96:2 Sing to Yahweh, bless his name. Proclaim his salvation day after day,

96:3 tell of his glory among the nations, tell his marvels to every people.

96:4 Yahweh is great, loud must be his praise, he is to be feared beyond all gods.

96:5 Nothingness, all the gods of the nations. Yahweh himself made the heavens,

96:6 in his presence are splendour and majesty, in his sanctuary power and beauty.

96:7 Pay tribute to Yahweh, families of the peoples, tribute to Yahweh of glory and power,

96:8 tribute to Yahweh of his name’s due glory. Bring out the offering, bear it before him,

96:9 worship Yahweh in his sacred court, tremble before him, all the earth!

96:10 Say among the nations, ‘Yahweh is king!’ Firm has he made the world, and unshakeable; he will judge each nation with strict justice.

96:11 Let the heavens be glad, let earth rejoice, let the sea thunder and all that it holds,

96:12 let the fields exult and all that is in them, let all the woodland trees cry out for joy,

96:13 at the presence of Yahweh, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth, to judge the world with justice and the nations with his truth.

Gospel : Jn 1, 1-18

PROLOGUE

1:1 In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

1:2 He was with God in the beginning.

1:3 Through him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through him.

1:4 All that came to be had life in him and that life was the light of men,

1:5 a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower[*a].

1:6 A man came, sent by God. His name was John.

1:7 He came as a witness, as a witness to speak for the light, so that everyone might believe through him.

1:8 He was not the light, only a witness to speak for the light.

1:9 The Word was the true light that enlightens all men; and he was coming into the world.

1:10 He was in the world that had its being through him, and the world did not know him.

1:11 He came to his own domain and his own people did not accept him.

1:12 But to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to all who believe in the name of him

1:13 who was born not out of human stock or urge of the flesh or will of man but of God himself.

1:14 The Word was made flesh, he lived among us[*b], and we saw his glory, the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

1:15 John appears as his witness. He proclaims: ‘This is the one of whom I said: He who comes after me ranks before me because he existed before me’.

1:16 Indeed, from his fulness we have, all of us, received – yes, grace in return for grace,

1:17 since, though the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.

1:18 No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.