The Old Testament reading is taken from the Prophet in exile,
Baruch, chapter 5, verses 1-9
5Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O
Jerusalem,
and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God.
2 Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
3 for God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven.
4 For God will give you evermore the name,
‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory’.
5 Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
look towards the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that God has remembered them.
6 For they went out from you on foot,
led away by their enemies;
but God will bring them back to you,
carried in glory, as on a royal throne.
7 For God has ordered that every high mountain and the
everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.
8 The woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God’s command.
9 For God will lead Israel with joy,
in the light of his glory,
with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.
This is the word of the Lord
® Thanks be to God
The New Testament reading is taken from Paul’s letter to the
Philippians, chapter 1, verses 3-11.
Thanksgiving and prayer
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers
for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your
partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being
confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will
carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have
you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and
confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with
me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection
of Christ Jesus.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and
more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be
able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for
the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that
comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.
This is the word of the Lord
® Thanks be to God