December 9, 2012
Second Sunday of Advent.
We hope that today is a good day.
Today's Bible story based on the calendar of the Catholic Church.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/calendar.php
Most of these contents are things of The World English Bible.
http://ebible.org/web/
We hope that everyone in the peace of the Lord.
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+ Saints: St. Juan Diego
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+ First Reading: Baruch 5:1-9
1 Put off, O Jerusalem, the garment of your mourning and affliction, and put on the comeliness of the glory that comes from God for ever.
2 Cast about you the robe of the righteousness which comes from God; set a diadem on your head of the glory of the Everlasting.
3 For God will show your brightness to every region under heaven.
4 For your name shall be called of God for ever The peace of righteousness, and The glory of godliness.
5 Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand upon the height, and look about you toward the east, and behold your children gathered from the going down of the sun to the rising thereof at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them.
6 For they went from you on foot, being led away of their enemies: but God brings them in to you borne on high with glory, * as on a royal throne.
7 For God has appointed that every high mountain, and the everlasting hills, should be made low, and the valleys filled up, to make plain the ground, that Israel may go safely in the glory of God.
8 Moreover the woods and every sweet smelling tree have overshadowed Israel by the commandment of God.
9 For God shall lead Israel with joy in the light of his glory with the mercy and righteousness that comes from him.
*5:6: Another reading is, as children of the kingdom.
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+ Psalm: Psalms 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6.
1 When Yahweh brought back those who returned to Zion,
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with singing.
Then they said among the nations,
"Yahweh has done great things for them."
3 Yahweh has done great things for us,
and we are glad.
4 Restore our fortunes again, Yahweh,
like the streams in the Negev.
5 Those who sow in tears will reap in joy.
6 He who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing,
will certainly come again with joy, carrying his sheaves.
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+ Second Reading: Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
4 always in every request of mine on behalf of you all making my requests with joy,
5 for your partnership‡ in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now;
6 being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
8 For God is my witness, how I long after all of you in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus.
9 This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment;
10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ;
11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
‡1:5: The word translated "partnership" (koinonia) also means "fellowship" and "sharing".
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+ Gospel: Luke 3:1-6
1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
2 in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.
3 He came into all the region around the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for remission of sins.
4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
'Make ready the way of the Lord.
Make his paths straight.
5 Every valley will be filled.
Every mountain and hill will be brought low.
The crooked will become straight,
and the rough ways smooth.
6 All flesh will see God's salvation.'"☆
☆3:6: Isaiah 40:3-5
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+ Today's Reading: Isaiah 14:1-21
1 For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob.
2 The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in Yahweh's land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
3 It will happen in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the hard service in which you were made to serve,
4 that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, "How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!"
5 Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,
6 who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that no one restrained.
7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out song.
8 Yes, the cypress trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, "Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us."
9 Sheol* from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10 They all will answer and ask you, "Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?"
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,† with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.
12 How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
13 You said in your heart, "I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north!
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!"
15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,‡ to the depths of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, "Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms;
17 who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities; who didn't release his prisoners to their home?"
18 All the kings of the nations, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.
19 But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden under foot.
20 You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The offspring§ of evildoers will not be named forever.
21 Prepare for slaughter of his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities.
*14:9: Sheol is the place of the dead.
†14:11: Sheol is the place of the dead.
‡14:15: Sheol is the place of the dead.
§14:20: or, seed
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