Isa 54:1-10
Shout for joy, barren one who has borne no children! Break into cries and shouts of joy, you who were never in labour! For the children of the forsaken one are more in number than the children of the wedded wife, says Yahweh. Widen the space of your tent, extend the curtains of your home, do not hold back! Read More
Isa 45:6b-8.18.21b-25
I am the Lord, and there is no other, I form the light and I create the darkness, I make well-being, and I create disaster, I, the Lord, do all these things. Rain down, you heavens, from above, and let the clouds pour down saving justice, let the earth open up and blossom with salvation, and let justice sprout with it; I, the Lord, have created it! Read More
Zeph 3:1-2.9-13
Disaster to the rebellious, the befouled, the tyrannical city! She has not listened to the call, she has not bowed to correction, she has not trusted in Yahweh, she has not drawn near to her God. Yes, then I shall purge the lips of the peoples, so that all may invoke the name of Yahweh and serve him shoulder to shoulder. Read More
Phil 4:4-7
Always be joyful, then, in the Lord; I repeat, be joyful. Let your good sense be obvious to everybody. The Lord is near. Never worry about anything; but tell God all your desires of every kind in prayer and petition shot through with gratitude, and the peace of God which is beyond our understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. Read More
Mt 17:10-13
The disciples put this question to Jesus, ‘Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ He replied, ‘Elijah is indeed coming, and he will set everything right again; however, I tell you that Elijah has come already and they did not recognise him but treated him as they pleased; and the Son of man will suffer similarly at their hands. ‘Then the disciples understood that he was speaking of John the Baptist. Read More
Isa 48:17-19
Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God and teach you for your own good, I lead you in the way you ought to go. If only you had listened to my commandments! Your prosperity would have been like a river and your saving justice like the waves of the sea. Read More
Mt 11:7b, 11-15
Jesus began to talk to the people about John: ‘In truth I tell you, of all the children born to women, there has never been anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. Read More
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
Eph 1:3-6.11-12
Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. Thus he chose us in Christ before the world was made to be holy and faultless before him in love, marking us out for himself beforehand, to be adopted sons, through Jesus Christ. Read More
Isa 35:1-10
”Let the desert and the dry lands be glad, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom; like the asphodel, let it burst into flower, let it rejoice and sing for joy. The glory of Lebanon is bestowed on it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; then they will see the glory of Yahweh, the splendour of our God. Read More
Bar 5:1-9
”Jerusalem, take off your dress of sorrow and distress, put on the beauty of God’s glory for evermore, wrap the cloak of God’s saving justice around you, put the diadem of the Eternal One’s glory on your head, for God means to show your splendour to every nation under heaven, and the name God gives you for evermore will be, ‘Peace-through-Justice, and Glory-through-Devotion’. Read More
