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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 61-62

61 Unto the end, for Idithun, a psalm of David.

Shall not my soul be subject to God? for from him is my salvation.

For he is my God and my saviour: he is my protector, I shall be moved no more.

How long do you rush in upon a man? you all kill, as if you were thrusting down a leaning wall, and a tottering fence.

But they have thought to cast away my price; I ran in thirst: they blessed with their mouth, but cursed with their heart.

But be thou, O my soul, subject to God: for from him is my patience.

For he is my God and my saviour: he is my helper, I shall not be moved.

In God is my salvation and my glory: he is the God of my help, and my hope is in God.

Trust in him, all ye congregation of people: pour out your hearts before him. God is our helper for ever.

10 But vain are the sons of men, the sons of men are liars in the balances: that by vanity they may together deceive.

11 Trust not in iniquity, and cover not robberies: if riches abound, set not your heart upon them.

12 God hath spoken once, these two things have I heard, that power belongeth to God,

13 And mercy to thee, O Lord; for thou wilt render to every man according to his works.

62 A psalm of David when he was in the desert of Edom.

O God, my God, to thee do I watch at break of day. For thee my soul hath thirsted; for thee my flesh, O how many ways!

In a desert land, and where there is no way, and no water: so in the sanctuary have I come before thee, to see thy power and thy glory.

For thy mercy is better than lives: thee my lips shall praise.

Thus will I bless thee all my life long: and in thy name I will lift up my hands.

Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness: and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.

If I have remembered thee upon my bed, I will meditate on thee in the morning:

Because thou hast been my helper. And I will rejoice under the covert of thy wings:

My soul hath stuck close to thee: thy right hand hath received me.

10 But they have sought my soul in vain, they shall go into the lower parts of the earth:

11 They shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall be the portions of foxes.

12 But the king shall rejoice in God, all they shall be praised that swear by him: because the mouth is stopped of them that speak wicked things.

Psalm 68

68 Unto the end, for them that shall be changed; for David.

SAVE me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul.

I stick fast in the mire of the deep: and there is no sure standing. I am come into the depth of the sea: and a tempest hath overwhelmed me.

I have laboured with crying; my jaws are become hoarse: my eyes have failed, whilst I hope in my God.

They are multiplied above the hairs of my head, who hate me without cause. My enemies are grown strong who have wrongfully persecuted me: then did I pay that which I took not away.

O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my offences are not hidden from thee:

Let not them be ashamed for me, who look for thee, O Lord, the Lord of hosts. Let them not be confounded on my account, who seek thee, O God of Israel.

Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.

I am become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to the sons of my mother.

10 For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

11 And I covered my soul in fasting: and it was made a reproach to me.

12 And I made haircloth my garment: and I became a byword to them.

13 They that sat in the gate spoke against me: and they that drank wine made me their song.

14 But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O Lord; for the time of thy good pleasure, O God. In the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

15 Draw me out of the mire, that I may not stick fast: deliver me from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

16 Let not the tempest of water drown me, nor the deep swallow me up: and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

17 Hear me, O Lord, for thy mercy is kind; look upon me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

18 And turn not away thy face from thy servant: for I am in trouble, hear me speedily.

19 Attend to my soul, and deliver it: save me because of my enemies.

20 Thou knowest my reproach, and my confusion, and my shame.

21 In thy sight are all they that afflict me; my heart hath expected reproach and misery. And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none: and for one that would comfort me, and I found none.

22 And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

23 Let their table become as a snare before them, and a recompense, and a stumblingblock.

24 Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; and their back bend thou down always.

25 Pour out thy indignation upon them: and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

26 Let their habitation be made desolate: and let there be none to dwell in their tabernacles.

27 Because they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds.

28 Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity: and let them not come into thy justice.

29 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; and with the just let them not be written.

30 But I am poor and sorrowful: thy salvation, O God, hath set me up.

31 I will praise the name of God with a canticle: and I will magnify him with praise.

32 And it shall please God better than a young calf, that bringeth forth horns and hoofs.

33 Let the poor see and rejoice: seek ye God, and your soul shall live.

34 For the Lord hath heard the poor: and hath not despised his prisoners.

35 Let the heavens and the earth praise him; the sea, and every thing that creepeth therein.

36 For God will save Sion, and the cities of Juda shall be built up. And they shall dwell there, and acquire it by inheritance.

37 And the seed of his servants shall possess it; and they that love his name shall dwell therein.

Ecclesiastes 8:14-9:10

14 There is also another vanity, which is done upon the earth. There are just men to whom evils happen, as though they had done the works of the wicked: and there are wicked men, who are as secure, as though they had the deeds of the just: but this also I judge most vain.

15 Therefore I commended mirth, because there was no good for a man under the sun, but to eat, and drink, and be merry, and that he should take nothing else with him of his labour in the days of his life, which God hath given him under the sun.

16 And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to understand the distraction that is upon earth: for there are some that day and night take no sleep with their eyes.

17 And I understood that man can find no reason of all those works of God that are done under the sun: and the more he shall labour to seek, so much the less shall he find: yea, though the wise man shall say, that he knoweth it, he shall not be able to find it.

All these things have I considered in my heart, that I might carefully understand them: there are just men and wise men, and their works are in the hand of God: and yet man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love, or hatred:

But all things are kept uncertain for the time to come, because all things equally happen to the just and to the wicked, to the good and to the evil, to the clean and to the unclean, to him that offereth victims, and to him that despiseth sacrifices. As the good is, so also is the sinner: as the perjured, so he also that sweareth truth.

This is a very great evil among all things that are done under the sun, that the same things happen to all men: whereby also the hearts of the children of men are filled with evil, and with contempt while they live, and afterwards they shall be brought down to hell.

There is no man that liveth always, or that hopeth for this: a living dog is better than a dead lion.

For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing more, neither have they a reward any more: for the memory of them is forgotten.

Their love also, and their hatred, and their envy are all perished, neither have they any part in this world, and in the work that is done under the sun.

Go then, and eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with gladness: because thy works please God.

At all times let thy garments be white, and let not oil depart from thy head.

Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest, all the days of thy unsteady life, which are given to thee under the sun, all the time of thy vanity: for this is thy portion in life, and in thy labour wherewith thou labourest under the sun.

10 Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening.

Galatians 4:21-31

21 Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, have you not read the law?

22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, and the other by a free woman.

23 But he who was of the bondwoman, was born according to the flesh: but he of the free woman, was by promise.

24 Which things are said by an allegory. For these are the two testaments. The one from mount Sina, engendering unto bondage; which is Agar:

25 For Sina is a mountain in Arabia, which hath affinity to that Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

26 But that Jerusalem, which is above, is free: which is our mother.

27 For it is written: Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not: break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that hath a husband.

28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

29 But as then he, that was born according to the flesh, persecuted him that was after the spirit; so also it is now.

30 But what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.

31 So then, brethren, we are not the children of the bondwoman, but of the free: by the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free.

Matthew 15:29-39

29 And when Jesus had passed away from thence, he came nigh the sea of Galilee. And going up into a mountain, he sat there.

30 And there came to him great multitudes, having with them the dumb, the blind, the lame, the maimed, and many others: and they cast them down at his feet, and he healed them:

31 So that the multitudes marvelled seeing the dumb speak, the lame walk, and the blind see: and they glorified the God of Israel.

32 And Jesus called together his disciples, and said: I have compassion on the multitudes, because they continue with me now three days, and have not what to eat, and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.

33 And the disciples say unto him: Whence then should we have so many loaves in the desert, as to fill so great a multitude?

34 And Jesus said to them: How many loaves have you? But they said: Seven, and a few little fishes.

35 And he commanded the multitude to sit down upon the ground.

36 And taking the seven loaves and the fishes, and giving thanks, he brake, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the people.

37 And they did all eat, and had their fill. And they took up seven baskets full, of what remained of the fragments.

38 And they that did eat, were four thousand men, beside children and women.

39 And having dismissed the multitude, he went up into a boat, and came into the coasts of Magedan.