Book of Common Prayer

The everlasting ordinance and election of God in saving all races through Christ Jesus his Son. We are to be saints and without blame. The dominion of Christ.

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. To the saints who are at Ephesus, and to those who believe on Jesus Christ.

² Grace be with you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all manner of spiritual blessings in heavenly things by Christ, ⁴ accordingly as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world was laid, to be holy and without blame before him through love. ⁵ And he predestined us through Jesus Christ to be his heirs, in accordance with his pleasure and will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of the grace with which he has made us accepted in the Beloved, ⁷ by whom we have redemption through his blood; that is, the forgiveness of sins, consonant with the riches of his grace, ⁸ which grace he shed on us abundantly in all wisdom and understanding.

⁹ And as it pleased him, he has made known to us the mystery of his will, ¹⁰ and purposed in himself to have it declared when the time was full come – namely that all things, both the things that are in heaven and also the things that are in earth, will be gathered together in Christ; ¹¹ that is to say, in him in whom we are made heirs. To this we were predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will, ¹² so that we who before believed in Christ will be to the praise of his glory. ¹³ In him also you (after you heard the word of truth, I mean the gospel of your salvation, in which you believed) were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ which is the earnest of our inheritance to redeem the purchased possession, and that to the laud of his glory.

The office of John the Baptist. The baptism of Christ, his fasting, his preaching, and the calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Christ heals the man with the unclean spirit, helps Peter’s mother-in-law, and cleanses the leper.

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, ² as it is written in the prophets: Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way before you. ³ The voice of a crier in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his paths straight!

⁴ John baptized in the wilderness, and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. ⁵ And all the countryside of Judea and the people of Jerusalem went out to him, and were all baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁶ John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of skin about his loins. And he ate locusts and wild honey, ⁷ and preached, saying, One mightier than I comes after me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. ⁸ I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

⁹ And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth, a town of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan River. ¹⁰ And as soon as Jesus came out of the water, John saw heaven open, and the Holy Spirit descending upon him like a dove. ¹¹ And there came a voice from heaven: You are my dear Son, in whom I delight.

¹² And immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. ¹³ And he was there in the wilderness forty days, and was tried by Satan, and was with wild creatures. And the angels ministered to him.