December 9, 2014

Reading

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah   40: 1-14

40:1	“Be consoled, be consoled, O my people!” says your God.
40:2	Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her! For her malice has reached its end. Her iniquity has been forgiven. She has received double for all her sins from the hand of the Lord.
40:3	The voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight the paths of our God, in a solitary place.
40:4	Every valley will be exalted, and every mountain and hill will be brought low. And the crooked will be straightened, and the uneven will become level ways.
40:5	And the glory of the Lord will be revealed. And all flesh together will see that the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
40:6	The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” And I said, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
40:7	The grass has dried up, and the flower has fallen. For the Spirit of the Lord has blown over it. Truly, the people are like grass.
40:8	The grass has dried up, and the flower has fallen. But the Word of our Lord remains for eternity.”
40:9	You who evangelize Zion, climb a high mountain! You who evangelize Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah: “Behold, your God!”
40:10	Behold, the Lord God will arrive in strength, and his arm will rule. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work is before him.
40:11	He will pasture his flock like a shepherd. He will gather together the lambs with his arm, and he will lift them up to his bosom, and he himself will carry the very young.

 

Gospel

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew   18: 12-14

18:12	How does it seem to you? If someone has one hundred sheep, and if one of them has gone astray, should he not leave behind the ninety-nine in the mountains, and go out to seek what has gone astray?
18:13	And if he should happen to find it: Amen I say to you, that he has more joy over that one, than over the ninety-nine which did not go astray.
18:14	Even so, it is not the will before your Father, who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should be lost.