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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 40

40 Unto the end, a psalm for David himself.

Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor: the Lord will deliver him in the evil day.

The Lord preserve him and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth: and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

The Lord help him on his bed of sorrow: thou hast turned all his couch in his sickness.

I said: O Lord, be thou merciful to me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.

My enemies have spoken evils against me: when shall he die and his name perish?

And if he came in to see me, he spoke vain things: his heart gathered together iniquity to itself. He went out and spoke to the same purpose.

All my enemies whispered together against me: they devised evils to me.

They determined against me an unjust word: shall he that sleepeth rise again no more?

10 For even the man of peace, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, hath greatly supplanted me.

11 But thou, O Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up again: and I will requite them.

12 By this I know, that thou hast had a good will for me: because my enemy shall not rejoice over me.

13 But thou hast upheld me by reason of my innocence: and hast established me in thy sight for ever.

14 Blessed by the Lord the God of Israel from eternity to eternity. So be it. So be it.

Psalm 54

54 Unto the end, in verses, understanding for David.

Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication:

Be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled,

At the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me: and in wrath they were troublesome to me.

My heart is troubled within me: and the fear of death is fallen upon me.

Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness hath covered me.

And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?

Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the wilderness.

I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.

10 Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.

11 Day and night shall iniquity surround it upon its walls: and in the midst thereof are labour,

12 And injustice. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets.

13 For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him.

14 But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar,

15 Who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.

16 Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. For there is wickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them.

17 But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me.

18 Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice.

19 He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw near to me: for among many they were with me.

20 God shall hear, and the Eternal shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God:

21 He hath stretched forth his hand to repay. They have defiled his covenant,

22 They are divided by the wrath Of his countenance, and his heart hath drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and the same are darts.

23 Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer the just to waver for ever.

24 But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee, O Lord.

Psalm 51

51 Unto the end, understanding for David,

When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul David went to the house of Achimelech. [1 Kings 22.]

Why dost thou glory in malice, thou that art mighty in iniquity?

All the day long thy tongue hath devised injustice: as a sharp razor, thou hast wrought deceit.

Thou hast loved malice more than goodness: and iniquity rather than to speak righteousness.

Thou hast loved all the words of ruin, O deceitful tongue.

Therefore will God destroy thee for ever: he will pluck thee out, and remove thee from thy dwelling place: and thy root out of the land of the living.

The just shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him, and say:

Behold the man that made not God his helper: But trusted in the abundance of his riches: and prevailed in his vanity.

10 But I, as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God for ever, yea for ever and ever.

11 I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name, for it is good in the sight of thy saints.

Job 29:1

29 Job also added, taking up his parable, and said:

Job 31:24-40

24 If I have thought gold my strength, and have said to fine gold: My confidence:

25 If I have rejoiced over my great riches, and because my hand had gotten much.

26 If I beheld the sun when it shined, and the moon going in brightness:

27 And my heart in secret hath rejoiced, and I have kissed my hand with my mouth:

28 Which is a very great iniquity, and a denial against the most high God.

29 If I have been glad at the downfall of him that hated me, and have rejoiced that evil had found him.

30 For I have not given my mouth to sin, by wishing a curse to his soul.

31 If the men of my tabernacle have not said: Who will give us of his flesh that we may be filled?

32 The stranger did not stay without, my door was open to the traveller.

33 If as a man I have hid my sin, and have concealed my iniquity in my bosom.

34 If I have been afraid at a very great multitude, and the contempt of kinsmen hath terrified me: and I have not rather held my peace, and not gone out of the door.

35 Who would grant me a hearer, that the Almighty may hear my desire; and that he himself that judgeth would write a book,

36 That I may carry it on my shoulder, and put it about me as a crown?

37 At every step of mine I would pronounce it, and offer it as to a prince.

38 If my land cry against me, and with it the furrows thereof mourn:

39 If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, and have afflicted the soul of the tillers thereof:

40 Let thistles grow up to me instead of wheat, and thorns instead of barley.

Acts 15:12-21

12 And all the multitude held their peace; and they heard Barnabas and Paul telling what great signs and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.

13 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying: Men, brethren, hear me.

14 Simon hath related how God first visited to take of the Gentiles a people to his name.

15 And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written:

16 After these things I will return, and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and the ruins thereof I will rebuild, and I will set it up:

17 That the residue of men may seek after the Lord, and all nations upon whom my name is invoked, saith the Lord, who doth these things.

18 To the Lord was his own work known from the beginning of the world.

19 For which cause I judge that they, who from among the Gentiles are converted to God, are not to be disquieted.

20 But that we write unto them, that they refrain themselves from the pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him in the synagogues, where he is read every sabbath.

John 11:30-44

30 For Jesus was not yet come into the town: but he was still in that place where Martha had met him.

31 The Jews therefore, who were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary that she rose up speedily and went out, followed her, saying: She goeth to the grave to weep there.

32 When Mary therefore was come where Jesus was, seeing him, she fell down at his feet, and saith to him: Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

33 Jesus, therefore, when he saw her weeping, and the Jews that were come with her, weeping, groaned in the spirit, and troubled himself,

34 And said: Where have you laid him? They say to him: Lord, come and see.

35 And Jesus wept.

36 The Jews therefore said: Behold how he loved him.

37 But some of them said: Could not he that opened the eyes of the man born blind, have caused that this man should not die?

38 Jesus therefore again groaning in himself, cometh to the sepulchre. Now it was a cave; and a stone was laid over it.

39 Jesus saith: Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith to him: Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he is now of four days.

40 Jesus saith to her: Did not I say to thee, that if thou believe, thou shalt see the glory of God?

41 They took therefore the stone away. And Jesus lifting up his eyes said: Father, I give thee thanks that thou hast heard me.

42 And I knew that thou hearest me always; but because of the people who stand about have I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

43 When he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice: Lazarus, come forth.

44 And presently he that had been dead came forth, bound feet and hands with winding bands; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus said to them: Loose him, and let him go.