A reading from
the Book of Wisdom 18:14-16; 19:6-9
When peaceful stillness compassed everything/ and the night in its swift course was half spent,/ Your all-powerful word, from heaven’s royal throne/ bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land,/ bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree./ And as he alighted, he filled every place with death;/ he still reached to heaven, while he stood upon the earth.
For all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew,/ serving its natural laws,/ that your children might be preserved unharmed./ The cloud overshadowed their camp;/ and out of what had before been water, dry land was seen emerging:/ Out of the Red Sea an unimpeded road,/ and a grassy plain out of the mighty flood./ Over this crossed the whole nation sheltered by your hand,/ after they beheld stupendous wonders./ For they ranged about like horses,/ and bounded about like lambs,/ praising you, O Lord! their deliverer.
The word of the Lord.
