Woe to Jerusalem Ah! Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year, let festivals recur. 2 Yet I will inflict Ariel, and there shall be mourning and lamentation, and it shall be to me like an altar hearth. 3 And I will encamp ?in a circle? against you, and I will lay siege to you with towers and I will raise up siegeworks against you. 4 Then you shall be low; you shall speak from the earth, and your words will be low, from dust. And your voice will be from the earth, like a ghost, and your word will whisper from the …
+ DAILY PRAYER +
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my pleas for mercy!
In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!
Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan,
and he hears my voice.
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you;
He will never permit the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 45:1-7
Psa 45:1 My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
I address my verses to the king;
my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.
Psa 45:2 You are the most handsome of the sons of men;
grace is poured upon your lips;
therefore God has blessed you forever.
Psa 45:3 Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
in your splendor and majesty!
Psa 45:4 In your majesty ride out victoriously
for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!
Psa 45:5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies;
the peoples fall under you.
Psa 45:6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
Psa 45:7 you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
Reading for Tuesday January 6th Isaiah 29:1-16
Woe to Jerusalem
29 Ah! Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped!
Add year to year,
let festivals recur.
2 Yet I will inflict Ariel,
and there shall be mourning and lamentation,
and it shall be to me like an altar hearth.
3 And I will encamp ?in a circle? against you,
and I will lay siege to you with towers
and I will raise up siegeworks against you.
4 Then you shall be low;
you shall speak from the earth,
and your words will be low, from dust.
And your voice will be from the earth, like a ghost,
and your word will whisper from the dust.
5 But the multitude of your strangers shall be like fine dust,
and the multitude of tyrants like chaff that passes by.
And it will happen in an instant, suddenly.
6 You will be punished by Yahweh of hosts
with thunder and earthquake and great sound,
storm wind and tempest and the flame of a devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel,
all those who fight against her and her stronghold,
and those who inflict her shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8 And it shall be as when the hungry person dreams—look, he is eating!
And he wakes up and his inner self is empty.
Or as when the thirsty person dreams—look, he is drinking!
And he wakes up and look, he is faint,
and his inner self is longing for water.
So shall be the multitude of all the nations who fight against Mount Zion.
9 Be astonished and be amazed!
Blind yourselves and be blinded!
They are drunk but not from wine;
they stagger but not from strong drink.
10 For Yahweh has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep,
and he has shut your eyes, the prophets,
and he has covered your heads, the seers.
11 And the vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. When they give it to one who knows the document, saying, “?Read? this now!” He says, “I am not able, for it is sealed.” 12 And if the document is given to one who does not ?know how to read?, saying, “?Read? this now!” he says, “I do not ?know how to read?.”
13 And the Lord said,
“Because this people draw near with its mouth,
and with its lips it honors me,
and its heart is far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught,
14 therefore look, I am again doing something spectacular
and a spectacle with this spectacular people.
And the wisdom of its wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of its discerning ones shall keep itself hidden.”
15 Ah! Those who make a plan deep, to hide it from Yahweh,
and their deeds are in a dark place.
And they say, “Who sees us?
And who knows us?”
16 Your perversity!
As if ?a potter? shall be regarded as the clay!
That the product of its maker says,
“He did not make me,”
and the thing made into shape says of its ?potter?,
“He has no understanding.”
Lord’s Prayer
Daily Prayer
O God, by the leading of a star You made known Your only-begotten Son to the Gentiles. Lead us, who know You by faith, to enjoy in heaven the fullness of Your divine presence; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, ow and forever.
Concluding Prayer
Heavenly Father, send Your Holy Spirit into our hearts to direct and rule us to do Your will, to comfort us in all our afflictions, to defend us from all error, and to lead us into all truth; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
