Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

40 Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your God.

² Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her: for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven: she hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.

³ The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God.

⁴ Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain.

⁵ And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken.

⁶ The voice of one, saying: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the held.

⁷ The grass is withered, and the dower is fallen, because the spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it. Indeed the people is grass:

⁸ The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen: but the word of our Lord endureth for ever.

⁹ Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion: lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God:

¹⁰ Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm shall rule: Behold his reward is with him and his work is before him.

¹¹ He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather together the lambs with his arm, and shall take them up in his bosom, and he himself shall carry them that are with young.

85 A prayer for David himself. Incline thy ear, O Lord, and hear me: for I am needy and poor.

² Preserve my soul, for I am holy: save thy servant, O my God, that trusteth in thee.

⁸ There is none among the gods like unto thee, O Lord: and there is none according to thy works.

⁹ All the nations thou hast made shall come and adore before thee, O Lord: and they shall glorify thy name.

¹⁰ For thou art great and dost wonderful things: thou art God alone.

¹¹ Conduct me, O Lord, in thy way, and I will walk in thy truth: let my heart rejoice that it may fear thy name.

¹² I will praise thee, O Lord my God: with my whole heart, and I will glorify thy name for ever:

¹³ For thy mercy is great towards me: and thou hast delivered my soul out of the lower hell.

⁸ But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹ The Lord delayeth not his promise, as some imagine, but dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance.

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the earth and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up.

¹¹ Seeing then that all these things are to be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness?

¹² Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat?

¹³ But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises, in which justice dwelleth.

¹⁴ Wherefore, dearly beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent that you may be found before him unspotted and blameless in peace.

¹⁵ And account the longsuffering of our Lord, salvation; as also our most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, hath written to you:

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

² As it is written in Isaias the prophet: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare the way before thee.

³ A voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.

⁴ John was in the desert baptizing, and preaching the baptism of penance, unto remission of sins.

⁵ And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all they of Jerusalem, and were baptized by him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁶ And John was clothed with camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and he ate locusts and wild honey.

⁷ And he preached, saying: There cometh after me one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.

⁸ I have baptized you with water; but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.