Daily Reading for Sunday, December 4th, 2011

Gospel, Mk 1:1-8

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

² It is written in the prophet Isaiah: Look, I am going to send my messenger in front of you to prepare your way before you.

³ A voice of one that cries in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.

⁴ John the Baptist was in the desert, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

⁵ All Judaea and all the people of Jerusalem made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins.

⁶ John wore a garment of camel-skin, and he lived on locusts and wild honey.

⁷ In the course of his preaching he said, 'After me is coming someone who is more powerful than me, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals.

⁸ I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.'

Reading 2, 2 Pt 3:8-14

⁸ But there is one thing, my dear friends, that you must never forget: that with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

⁹ The Lord is not being slow in carrying out his promises, as some people think he is; rather is he being patient with you, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to repentance.

¹⁰ The Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then with a roar the sky will vanish, the elements will catch fire and melt away, the earth and all that it contains will be burned up.

¹¹ Since everything is coming to an end like this, what holy and saintly lives you should be living

¹² while you wait for the Day of God to come, and try to hasten its coming: on that Day the sky will dissolve in flames and the elements melt in the heat.

¹³ What we are waiting for, relying on his promises, is the new heavens and new earth, where uprightness will be at home.

¹⁴ So then, my dear friends, while you are waiting, do your best to live blameless and unsullied lives so that he will find you at peace.

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