Book of Common Prayer

Confirm your call!

1 Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus the Messiah, to those who have obtained a share of faith equal to ours in the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus the Messiah: ² may grace and peace be multiplied to you, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³ God has bestowed upon us, through his divine power, everything that we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue. ⁴ The result is that he has given us, through these things, his precious and wonderful promises; and the purpose of all this is so that you may run away from the corruption of lust that is in the world, and may become partakers of the divine nature. ⁵ So, because of this, you should strain every nerve to supplement your faith with virtue, and your virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and your knowledge with self-control, and your self-control with patience, and your patience with piety, ⁷ and your piety with family affection, and your family affection with love. ⁸ If you have these things in plentiful supply, you see, you will not be wasting your time, or failing to bear fruit, in relation to your knowledge of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. ⁹ Someone who doesn’t have these things, in fact, is so short-sighted as to be actually blind, and has forgotten what it means to be cleansed from earlier sins. ¹⁰ So, my dear family, you must make the effort all the more to confirm that God has called you and chosen you. If you do this, you will never trip up. ¹¹ That is how you will have, richly laid out before you, an entrance into the kingdom of God’s coming age, the kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus the Messiah.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem

21 When they came near to Jerusalem, and arrived at Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of the disciples on ahead.

² “Go into the village over there,” he said, “and at once you’ll find a donkey tied up, and a foal beside it. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ And if anyone says anything to you, say, ‘The master needs them, and he’ll send them back straight away.’ ”

He sent them off at once.

⁴ This happened so that the prophet’s words might be fulfilled:

⁶ So the disciples went off and did as Jesus had told them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and its foal, and put their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them.

⁸ The huge crowd spread their cloaks on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and scattered them on the road. ⁹ The crowds who went on ahead of him, and those who were following behind, shouted out,

¹⁰ When they came into Jerusalem, the whole city was gripped with excitement.

“Who is this?” they were saying.

¹¹ “This is the prophet, Jesus,” replied the crowds, “from Nazareth in Galilee!”