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Book of Common Prayer

Daily Old and New Testament readings based on the Book of Common Prayer.
Duration: 861 days
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
Version
Psalm 87

87 A canticle of a psalm for the sons of Core: unto the end, for Maheleth, to answer understanding of Eman the Ezrahite.

O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.

Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.

For my soul is filled with evils: and my life hath drawn nigh to hell.

I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help,

Free among the dead. Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cast off from thy hand.

They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.

Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.

Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and came not forth:

10 My eyes languished through poverty. All the day I cried to thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to thee.

11 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? or shall physicians raise to life, and give praise to thee?

12 Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy: and thy truth in destruction?

13 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark; and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?

14 But I, O Lord, have cried to thee: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee.

15 Lord, why castest thou off my prayer: why turnest thou away thy face from me?

16 I am poor, and in labours from my youth: and being exalted have been humbled and troubled.

17 Thy wrath hath come upon me: and thy terrors have troubled me.

18 They have come round about me like water all the day: they have compassed me about together.

19 Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me: and my acquaintance, because of misery.

Psalm 90

90 The praise of a canticle for David. He that dwelleth in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob.

He shall say to the Lord: Thou art my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.

For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.

He will overshadow thee with his shoulders: and under his wings thou shalt trust.

His truth shall compass thee with a shield: thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night.

Of the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil.

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee.

But thou shalt consider with thy eyes: and shalt see the reward of the wicked.

Because thou, O Lord, art my hope: thou hast made the most High thy refuge.

10 There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling.

11 For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways.

12 In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

13 Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon.

14 Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he hath known my name.

15 He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.

16 I will fill him with length of days; and I will shew him my salvation.

Psalm 136

136 Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept: when we remembered Sion:

On the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments.

For there they that led us into captivity required of us the words of songs. And they that carried us away, said: Sing ye to us a hymn of the songs of Sion.

How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.

Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee: If I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy.

Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem: Who say: Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

O daughter of Babylon, miserable: blessed shall he be who shall repay thee thy payment which thou hast paid us.

Blessed be he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the rock.

1 Maccabees 2:1-28

In those days arose Mathathias the son of John, the son of Simeon, a priest of the sons of Joarib, from Jerusalem, and he abode in the mountain of Modin.

And he had five sons: John who was surnamed Gaddis:

And Simon, who was surnamed Thasi:

And Judas, who was called Machabeus:

And Eleazar, who was surnamed Abaron: and Jonathan, who was surnamed Apphus.

These saw the evils that were done in the people of Juda, and in Jerusalem.

And Mathathias said: Woe is me, wherefore was I born to see the ruin of my people, and the ruin of the holy city, and to dwell there, when it is given into the hands of the enemies?

The holy places are come into the hands of strangers: her temple is become as a man without honour.

The vessels of her glory are carried away captive: her old men are murdered in the streets, and her young men are fallen by the sword of the enemies.

10 What nation hath not inherited her kingdom, and gotten of her spoils?

11 All her ornaments are taken away. She that was free is made a slave.

12 And behold our sanctuary, and our beauty, and our glory is laid waste, and the Gentiles have defiled them.

13 To what end then should we live any longer?

14 And Mathathias and his sons rent their garments, and they covered themselves with haircloth, and made great lamentation.

15 And they that were sent from king Antiochus came thither, to compel them that were fled into the city of Modin, to sacrifice, and to burn incense, and to depart from the law of God.

16 And many of the people of Israel consented, and came to them: but Mathathias and his sons stood firm.

17 And they that were sent from Antiochus, answering, said to Mathathias: Thou art a ruler, and an honourable, and great man in this city, and adorned with sons, and brethren.

18 Therefore come thou first, and obey the king's commandment, as all nations have done, and the men of Juda, and they that remain in Jerusalem: and thou, and thy sons, shall be in the number of the king's friends, and enriched with gold, and silver, and many presents.

19 Then Mathathias answered, and said with a loud voice: Although all nations obey king Antiochus, so as to depart every man from the service of the law of his fathers, and consent to his commandments:

20 I and my sons, and my brethren will obey the law of our fathers.

21 God be merciful unto us: it is not profitable for us to forsake the law, and the justices of God:

22 We will not hearken to the words of king Antiochus, neither will we sacrifice, and transgress the commandments of our law, to go another way.

23 Now as he left off speaking these words, there came a certain Jew in the sight of all to sacrifice to the idols upon the altar in the city of Modin, according to the king's commandment.

24 And Mathathias saw and was grieved, and his reins trembled, and his wrath was kindled according to the judgment of the law, and running upon him he slew him upon the altar:

25 Moreover the man whom king Antiochus had sent, who compelled them to sacrifice, he slew at the same time, and pulled down the altar.

26 And shewed zeal for the law, as Phinees did by Zamri the son of Salomi.

27 And Mathathias cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying: Every one that hath zeal for the law, and maintaineth the testament, let him follow me.

28 So he, and his sons fled into the mountains, and left all that they had in the city.

Revelation 20:1-6

20 And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand.

And he laid hold on the dragon the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should no more seduce the nations, till the thousand years be finished. And after that, he must be loosed a little time.

And I saw seats; and they sat upon them; and judgment was given unto them; and the souls of them that were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and who had not adored the beast nor his image, nor received his character on their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

The rest of the dead lived not, till the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. In these the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ; and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Matthew 16:21-28

21 From that time Jesus began to shew to his disciples, that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again.

22 And Peter taking him, began to rebuke him, saying: Lord, be it far from thee, this shall not be unto thee.

23 Who turning, said to Peter: Go behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto me: because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men.

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

25 For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it.

26 For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?

27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works.

28 Amen I say to you, there are some of them that stand here, that shall not taste death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.