A reading from
the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 40:1-11
Comfort, give comfort to my people,/ says your God./ Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her/ that her service is at an end,/ her guilt is expiated;/ Indeed, she has received from the hand of the Lord/ double for all her sins.
A voice cries out:/ In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!/ Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!/ Every valley shall be filled in,/ every mountain and hill shall be made low;/ The rugged land shall be made a plain,/ the rough country, a broad valley./ Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,/ and all people shall see it together;/ for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
A voice says, “Cry out!”/ I answer, “What shall I cry out?”/ “All flesh is grass,/ and all their glory like the flower of the field./ The grass withers, the flower wilts,/ when the breath of the Lord blows upon it./ So then, the people is the grass./ Though the grass withers and the flower wilts,/ the word of our God stands forever.”
Go up onto a high mountain,/ Zion, herald of glad tidings;/ Cry out at the top of your voice,/ Jerusalem, herald of good news!/ Fear not to cry out/ and say to the cities of Judah:/ Here is your God!/ Here comes with power/ the Lord God,/ who rules by his strong arm;/ Here is his reward with him,/ his recompense before him./ Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;/ in his arms he gathers the lambs,/ Carrying them in his bosom,/ and leading the ewes with care.
The word of the Lord.
