FIRST
READING: Isaiah 41:13-20
13
For I am the Lord thy God, who take thee by the hand, and say to
thee: Fear not, I have helped thee.
14
Fear not, thou worm of Jacob, you that are dead of Israel: I have
helped thee, saith the Lord: and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel.
15
I have made thee as a new thrashing wain, with teeth like a saw: thou
shall thrash the mountains, and break them in pieces: and shalt make
the hills as chaff.
16
Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the
whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, in
the Holy One of Israel thou shalt be joyful.
17
The needy and the poor seek for waters, and there are none: their
tongue hath been dry with thirst. I the Lord will hear them, I the
God of Israel will not forsake them.
18
I will open rivers in the high bills, and fountains in the midst of
the plains: I will turn the desert into pools of waters, and the
impassable land into streams of waters.
19
I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the thorn, and the
myrtle, and the olive tree: I will set in the desert the fir tree,
the elm, and the box tree together:
20
That they may see and know, and consider, and understand together
that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel
hath created it.
PSALM:
Psalms 145:1, 9-13
1
I will extol thee, O God my king: and I will bless thy name for ever;
yea, for ever and ever.
9
The Lord is sweet to all: and his tender mercies are over all his
works.
10
Let all thy works, O lord, praise thee: and let thy saints bless
thee.
11
They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom: and shall tell of thy
power:
12
To make thy might known to the sons of men: and the glory of the
magnificence of thy kingdom.
13
Thy kingdom is a kingdom of all ages: and thy dominion endureth
throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words:
and holy in all his works.
GOSPEL:
Matthew
11:11-15
11
Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of
women a greater than John the Baptist: yet he that is the lesser in
the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12
And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of
heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.
13
For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John:
14
And if you will receive it, he is Elias that is to come.
15
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
