Daily Reading for Thursday, December 14th, 2023

Reading 1, Isaiah 41:13-20

¹³ For I, Yahweh, your God, I grasp you by your right hand; I tell you, 'Do not be afraid, I shall help you.'

¹⁴ Do not be afraid, Jacob, you worm! You little handful of Israel! I shall help you, declares Yahweh; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵ Look, I am making you into a threshing-sledge, new, with double teeth; you will thresh and beat the mountains to dust and reduce the hills to straw.

¹⁶ You will winnow them and the wind will carry them off, the gale will scatter them; whereas you will rejoice in Yahweh, will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷ The oppressed and needy search for water, and there is none, their tongue is parched with thirst. I, Yahweh, shall answer them, I, the God of Israel, shall not abandon them.

¹⁸ I shall open up rivers on barren heights and water-holes down in the ravines; I shall turn the desert into a lake and dry ground into springs of water.

¹⁹ I shall plant the desert with cedar trees, acacias, myrtles and olives; in the wastelands I shall put cypress trees, plane trees and box trees side by side;

²⁰ so that people may see and know, so that they may all observe and understand that the hand of Yahweh has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 145:1, 9, 10-11, 12-13

¹ [Hymn of Praise Of David] I shall praise you to the heights, God my King, I shall bless your name for ever and ever.