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Holy Innocents

    MorningEvening

    The Collect of the Day

    The Holy Innocents

    December 28

    We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

    Psalms

    2

    Quare fremuerunt gentes?BCP p. 586

    1Why are the nations in an uproar? *Why do the peoples mutter empty threats?

    2Why do the kings of the earth rise up in revolt, and the princes plot together, *against the Lord and against his Anointed?

    3“Let us break their yoke,” they say; *“let us cast off their bonds from us.”

    4He whose throne is in heaven is laughing; *the Lord has them in derision.

    5Then he speaks to them in his wrath, *and his rage fills them with terror.

    6“I myself have set my king *upon my holy hill of Zion.”

    7Let me announce the decree of the Lord: *he said to me, “You are my Son; this day have I begotten you.

    8Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance *and the ends of the earth for your possession.

    9You shall crush them with an iron rod *and shatter them like a piece of pottery.”

    10And now, you kings, be wise; *be warned, you rulers of the earth.

    11Submit to the Lord with fear, *and with trembling bow before him;

    12Lest he be angry and you perish; *for his wrath is quickly kindled.

    13Happy are they all *who take refuge in him!

    26

    Judica me, DomineBCP p. 616

    1Give judgment for me, O Lord, for I have lived with integrity; *I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered.

    2Test me, O Lord, and try me; *examine my heart and my mind.

    3For your love is before my eyes; *I have walked faithfully with you.

    4I have not sat with the worthless, *nor do I consort with the deceitful.

    5I have hated the company of evildoers; *I will not sit down with the wicked.

    6I will wash my hands in innocence, O Lord, *that I may go in procession round your altar,

    7Singing aloud a song of thanksgiving *and recounting all your wonderful deeds.

    8Lord, I love the house in which you dwell *and the place where your glory abides.

    9Do not sweep me away with sinners, *nor my life with those who thirst for blood,

    10Whose hands are full of evil plots, *and their right hand full of bribes.

    11As for me, I will live with integrity; *redeem me, O Lord, and have pity on me.

    12My foot stands on level ground; *in the full assembly I will bless the Lord.

    Daily Office Readings

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    Isa. 49:13-23

    13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his suffering ones. 14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. 17 Your builders outdo your destroyers, and those who laid you waste go away from you. 18 Lift up your eyes all around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you shall put all of them on like an ornament, and like a bride you shall bind them on. 19 Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land— surely now you will be too crowded for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. 20 The children born in the time of your bereavement will yet say in your hearing: “The place is too crowded for me; make room for me to settle.” 21 Then you will say in your heart, “Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away— so who has reared these? I was left all alone— where then have these come from?” 22 Thus says the Lord God: I will soon lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. 23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.

    Matt. 18:1-14

    1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 He called a child, whom he put among them, 3 and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. 6 “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes! 8 “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell of fire. 10 “Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven. 12 What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.