<\/p>\n
1 Let the desert and the dry lands be glad, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom; like the asphodel,<\/p>\n
2 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.<\/p>\n
3 Strengthen all weary hands, steady all trembling knees<\/p>\n
4 and say to the faint-hearted, ‘Be strong! Do not be afraid. Here is your God, vengeance is coming, divine retribution; he is coming to save you.’<\/p>\n
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed,<\/p>\n
6 then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy; for water will gush in the desert and streams in the wastelands,<\/p>\n
10 For those whom Yahweh has ransomed will return, they will come to Zion shouting for joy, their heads crowned with joy unending; rejoicing and gladness will escort them and sorrow and sighing will take flight.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
6 who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. He keeps faith for ever,<\/p>\n
7 gives justice to the oppressed, gives food to the hungry; Yahweh sets prisoners free.<\/p>\n
8 Yahweh gives sight to the blind, lifts up those who are bowed down.<\/p>\n
9 Yahweh protects the stranger, he sustains the orphan and the widow. Yahweh loves the upright,but he frustrates the wicked.<\/p>\n
10 Yahweh reigns for ever, your God, Zion, from age to age.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
2 Now John had heard in prison what Christ was doing and he sent his disciples to ask him,<\/p>\n
3 ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect someone else?’<\/p>\n
4 Jesus answered, ‘Go back and tell John what you hear and see;<\/p>\n
5 the blind see again, and the lame walk, those suffering from virulent skin-diseases are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life and the good news is proclaimed to the poor;<\/p>\n
6 and blessed is anyone who does not find me a cause of falling.’<\/p>\n
7 As the men were leaving, Jesus began to talk to the people about John, ‘What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swaying in the breeze? No?<\/p>\n
8 Then what did you go out to see? A man wearing fine clothes? Look, those who wear fine clothes are to be found in palaces.<\/p>\n
9 Then what did you go out for? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet:<\/p>\n
10 he is the one of whom scripture says: Look, I am going to send my messenger in front of you to prepare your way before you.<\/p>\n
11 ‘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.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
7 Now be patient, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. Think of a farmer: how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains!<\/p>\n
8 You too must be patient; do not lose heart, because the Lord’s coming will be soon.<\/p>\n
9 Do not make complaints against one another, brothers, so as not to be brought to judgement yourselves; the Judge is already to be seen waiting at the gates.<\/p>\n
10 For your example, brothers, in patiently putting up with persecution, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name;<\/p>\n
\n\t Printable PDF of Today’s Reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reading 1, Isaiah 35:1-6, 10 1 Let the desert and the dry lands be glad, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom; like the asphodel, 2 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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2148,45,86,2421,87,498],"class_list":{"0":"post-12318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-trivia","8":"tag-14th","9":"tag-bible","10":"tag-daily","11":"tag-december","12":"tag-reading","13":"tag-sunday"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}