Readings for Celebrating Advent

⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
    because he has visited to help and has redeemed^[a] his people,
⁶⁹ and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David,
⁷⁰ just as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from earliest times—
⁷¹     salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all those who hate us,
⁷² to show mercy to our fathers
    and to remember his holy covenant,
⁷³ the oath that he swore to Abraham our father,
    to grant us ⁷⁴ that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies,
could serve him without fear ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness
    before him all our days.
⁷⁶ And so you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
    for you will go on before the Lord to prepare his ways,
⁷⁷ to give knowledge of salvation to his people
    by the forgiveness of their sins,
⁷⁸ because of the merciful compassion^[b] of our God
    by which the dawn will visit to help us from on high,
⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
    to direct our feet into the way of peace.”