Daily Readings: December 13, 2024

Friday after the Second Sunday of Advent

Ember Day

Morning	Evening
Psalm 31	Psalm 35
Isa. 7:10-25 2 Thess. 2:13-3:5 Luke 22:14-30

The Collect of the Day

Second Sunday of Advent

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

15. For the Ministry (Ember Days)

I. For those to be ordained

Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts, in your divine providence you have appointed various orders in your Church: Give your grace, we humbly pray, to all who are [now] called to any office and ministry for your people; and so fill them with the truth of your doctrine and clothe them with holiness of life, that they may faithfully serve before you, to the glory of your great Name and for the benefit of your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

15. For the Ministry (Ember Days)

II. For the choice of fit persons for the ministry

O God, you led your holy apostles to ordain ministers in every place: Grant that your Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, may choose suitable persons for the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and may uphold them in their work for the extension of your kingdom; through him who is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

15. For the Ministry (Ember Days)

III. For all Christians in their vocation

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

First Sunday of Advent

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Psalms

31

In te, Domine, speraviBCP p. 622

¹In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; *deliver me in your righteousness.

²Incline your ear to me; *make haste to deliver me.

³Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe, for you are my crag and my stronghold; *for the sake of your Name, lead me and guide me.

⁴Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me, *for you are my tower of strength.

⁵Into your hands I commend my spirit, *for you have redeemed me, O Lord, O God of truth.

⁶I hate those who cling to worthless idols, *and I put my trust in the Lord.

⁷I will rejoice and be glad because of your mercy; *for you have seen my affliction; you know my distress.

⁸You have not shut me up in the power of the enemy; *you have set my feet in an open place.

⁹Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; *my eye is consumed with sorrow, and also my throat and my belly.

¹⁰For my life is wasted with grief, and my years with sighing; *my strength fails me because of affliction, and my bones are consumed.

¹¹I have become a reproach to all my enemies and even to my neighbors, a dismay to those of my acquaintance; *when they see me in the street they avoid me.

¹²I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; *I am as useless as a broken pot.

¹³For I have heard the whispering of the crowd; fear is all around; *they put their heads together against me; they plot to take my life.

¹⁴But as for me, I have trusted in you, O Lord. *I have said, “You are my God.

¹⁵My times are in your hand; *rescue me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.

¹⁶Make your face to shine upon your servant, *and in your loving-kindness save me.”

¹⁷Lord, let me not be ashamed for having called upon you; *rather, let the wicked be put to shame; let them be silent in the grave.

¹⁸Let the lying lips be silenced which speak against the righteous, *haughtily, disdainfully, and with contempt.

¹⁹How great is your goodness, O Lord! which you have laid up for those who fear you; *which you have done in the sight of all for those who put their trust in you.

²⁰You hide them in the covert of your presence from those who slander them; *you keep them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.

²¹Blessed be the Lord! *for he has shown me the wonders of his love in a besieged city.

²²Yet I said in my alarm, “I have been cut off from the sight of your eyes.” *Nevertheless, you heard the sound of my entreaty when I cried out to you.

²³Love the Lord, all you who worship him; *the Lord protects the faithful, but repays to the full those who act haughtily.

²⁴Be strong and let your heart take courage, *all you who wait for the Lord.

Daily Office Readings

¹⁰Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. ¹²But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. ¹³Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. ¹⁵He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. ¹⁶For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted. ¹⁷The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.” ¹⁸On that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the sources of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures. ²⁰On that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will take off the beard as well. ²¹On that day one will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, ²²and will eat curds because of the abundance of milk that they give; for everyone that is left in the land shall eat curds and honey. ²³On that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. ²⁴With bow and arrows one will go there, for all the land will be briers and thorns; ²⁵and as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.