Daily Reading for Sunday, December 16th, 2012

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Reading 1, Zephaniah 3:14-18

¹⁴ Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice, exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem!

¹⁵ Yahweh has repealed your sentence; he has turned your enemy away. Yahweh is king among you, Israel, you have nothing more to fear.

¹⁶ When that Day comes, the message for Jerusalem will be: Zion, have no fear, do not let your hands fall limp.

¹⁷ Yahweh your God is there with you, the warrior-Saviour. He will rejoice over you with happy song, he will renew you by his love, he will dance with shouts of joy for you,

¹⁸ as on a day of festival. I have taken away your misfortune, no longer need you bear the disgrace of it.

Responsorial Psalm, Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6

² Look, he is the God of my salvation: I shall have faith and not be afraid, for Yahweh is my strength and my song, he has been my salvation.'

³ Joyfully you will draw water from the springs of salvation

⁴ and, that day, you will say, 'Praise Yahweh, invoke his name. Proclaim his deeds to the people, declare his name sublime.

⁵ Sing of Yahweh, for his works are majestic, make them known throughout the world.

⁶ Cry and shout for joy, you who live in Zion, For the Holy One of Israel is among you in his greatness.'

Gospel, Luke 3:10-18

¹⁰ When all the people asked him, 'What must we do, then?'

¹¹ he answered, 'Anyone who has two tunics must share with the one who has none, and anyone with something to eat must do the same.'

¹² There were tax collectors, too, who came for baptism, and these said to him, 'Master, what must we do?'

¹³ He said to them, 'Exact no more than the appointed rate.'

¹⁴ Some soldiers asked him in their turn, 'What about us? What must we do?' He said to them, 'No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!'

¹⁵ A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to wonder whether John might be the Christ,

¹⁶ so John declared before them all, 'I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, who is more powerful than me, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

¹⁷ His winnowing-fan is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.'

¹⁸ And he proclaimed the good news to the people with many other exhortations too.

Reading 2, Philippians 4:4-7

⁴ Always be joyful, then, in the Lord; I repeat, be joyful.

⁵ Let your good sense be obvious to everybody. The Lord is near.

⁶ Never worry about anything; but tell God all your desires of every kind in prayer and petition shot through with gratitude,

⁷ and the peace of God which is beyond our understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.