Print Page Options
Previous Prev Day Next DayNext

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 69

69 Unto the end, a psalm for David, to bring to remembrance that the Lord saved him.

O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me.

Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek my soul:

Let them be turned backward, and blush for shame that desire evils to me: Let them be presently turned away blushing for shame that say to me: Tis well, tis well.

Let all that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee; and let such as love thy salvation say always: The Lord be magnified.

But I am needy and poor; O God, help me. Thou art my helper and my deliverer: O Lord, make no delay.

Psalm 73

73 Understanding for Asaph. O God, why hast thou cast us off unto the end: why is thy wrath enkindled against the sheep of thy pasture?

Remember thy congregation, which thou hast possessed from the beginning. The sceptre of thy inheritance which thou hast redeemed: mount Sion in which thou hast dwelt.

Lift up thy hands against their pride unto the end; see what things the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

And they that hate thee have made their boasts, in the midst of thy solemnity. They have set up their ensigns for signs,

And they knew not both in the going out and on the highest top. As with axes in a wood of trees,

They have cut down at once the gates thereof, with axe and hatchet they have brought it down.

They have set fire to thy sanctuary: they have defiled the dwelling place of thy name on the earth.

They said in their heart, the whole kindred of them together: Let us abolish all the festival days of God from the land.

Our signs we have not seen, there is now no prophet: and he will know us no more.

10 How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach: is the adversary to provoke thy name for ever?

11 Why dost thou turn away thy hand: and thy right hand out of the midst of thy bosom for ever?

12 But God is our king before ages: he hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.

13 Thou by thy strength didst make the sea firm: thou didst crush the heads of the dragons in the waters.

14 Thou hast broken the heads of the dragon: thou hast given him to be meat for the people of the Ethiopians.

15 Thou hast broken up the fountains and the torrents: thou hast dried up the Ethan rivers.

16 Thine is the day, and thine is the night: thou hast made the morning light and the sun.

17 Thou hast made all the borders of the earth: the summer and the spring were formed by thee.

18 Remember this, the enemy hath reproached the Lord: and a foolish people hath provoked thy name.

19 Deliver not up to beasts the souls that confess to thee: and forget not to the end the souls of thy poor.

20 Have regard to thy covenant: for they that are the obscure of the earth have been filled with dwellings of iniquity.

21 Let not the humble be turned away with confusion: the poor and needy shall praise thy name.

22 Arise, O God, judge thy own cause: remember thy reproaches with which the foolish man hath reproached thee all the day.

23 Forget not the voices of thy enemies: the pride of them that hate thee ascendeth continually.

Esther 1:1-4

In the days of Assuerus, who reigned from India to Ethiopia over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces:

When he sat on the throne of his kingdom, the city Susan was the capital of his kingdom.

Now in the third year of his reign he made a great feast for all the princes, and for his servants, for the most mighty of the Persians, and the nobles of the Medes, and the governors of the provinces in his sight,

That he might shew the riches of the glory of his kingdom, and the greatness, and boasting of his power, for a long time, to wit, for a hundred and fourscore days.

Esther 1:10-19

10 Now on the seventh day, when the king was merry, and after very much drinking was well warmed with wine, he commanded Mauman, and Bazatha, and Harbona, and Bagatha, and Abgatha, and Zethar, and Charcas, the seven eunuchs that served in his presence,

11 To bring in queen Vasthi before the king, with the crown set upon her head, to shew her beauty to all the people and the princes: for she was exceeding beautiful.

12 But she refused, and would not come at the king's commandment, which he had signified to her by the eunuchs. Whereupon the king, being angry, and inflamed with a very great fury,

13 Asked the wise men, who according to the custom of the kings, were always near his person, and all he did was by their counsel, who knew the laws, and judgments of their forefathers:

14 (Now the chief and nearest him were, Charsena, and Sethar, and Admatha, and Tharsis, and Mares, and Marsana, and Mamuchan, seven princes of the Persians, and of the Medes, who saw the face of the king, and were used to sit first after him:)

15 What sentence ought to pass upon Vasthi the queen, who had refused to obey the commandment of king Assuerus, which he had sent to her by the eunuchs?

16 And Mamuchan answered, in the hearing of the king and the princes: Queen Vasthi hath not only injured the king, but also all the people and princes that are in all the provinces of king Assuerus.

17 For this deed of the queen will go abroad to all women, so that they will despise their husbands, and will say: King Assuerus commanded that queen Vasthi should come in to him, and she would not.

18 And by this example all the wives of the princes of the Persians and the Medes will slight the commandments of their husbands: wherefore the king's indignation is just.

19 If it please thee, let an edict go out from thy presence, and let it be written according to the law of the Persians and of the Medes, which must not be altered, that Vasthi come in no more to the king, but another, that is better than her, be made queen in her place.

Acts 17:1-15

17 And when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

And Paul, according to his custom, went in unto them; and for three sabbath days he reasoned with them out of the scriptures:

Declaring and insinuating that the Christ was to suffer, and to rise again from the dead; and that this is Jesus Christ, whom I preach to you.

And some of them believed, and were associated to Paul and Silas; and of those that served God, and of the Gentiles a great multitude, and of noble women not a few.

But the Jews, moved with envy, and taking unto them some wicked men of the vulgar sort, and making a tumult, set the city in an uproar; and besetting Jason's house, sought to bring them out unto the people.

And not finding them, they drew Jason and certain brethren to the rulers of the city, crying: They that set the city in an uproar, are come hither also;

Whom Jason hath received; and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.

And they stirred up the people, and the rulers of the city hearing these things,

And having taken satisfaction of Jason and of the rest, they let them go.

10 But the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea. Who, when they were come thither, went into the synagogue of the Jews.

11 Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, who received the word with all eagerness, daily searching the scriptures, whether these things were so.

12 And many indeed of them believed, and of honourable women that were Gentiles, and of men not a few.

13 And when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was also preached by Paul at Berea, they came thither also, stirring up and troubling the multitude.

14 And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul, to go unto the sea; but Silas and Timothy remained there.

15 And they that conducted Paul, brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a commandment from him to Silas and Timothy, that they should come to him with all speed, they departed.

John 12:36-43

36 Whilst you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. These things Jesus spoke; and he went away, and hid himself from them.

37 And whereas he had done so many miracles before them, they believed not in him:

38 That the saying of Isaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he said: Lord, who hath believed our hearing? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?

39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaias said again:

40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

41 These things said Isaias, when he saw his glory, and spoke of him.

42 However, many of the chief men also believed in him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, that they might not be cast out of the synagogue.

43 For they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.