The utterance of Balaam, son of Beor,/ the utterance of a man whose eye is true,/ The utterance of one who hears what God says,/ and knows what the Most High knows,/ Of one who sees what the Almighty sees,/ enraptured, and with eyes unveiled:/ How goodly are your tents, O Jacob;/ your encampments, O Israel!/ They are like gardens beside a stream,/ like the cedars planted by the Lord./ His wells shall yield free-flowing waters,/ he shall have the sea within reach;/ His king shall rise higher,/ and his royalty shall be exalted.

When Jesus had come into the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things?

Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord.

The desert and the parched land will exult;/ the steppe will rejoice and bloom./ They will bloom with abundant flowers,/ and rejoice with joyful song./ The glory of Lebanon will be given to them,/ the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;/ they will see the glory of the Lord,/ the splendor of our God./ Strengthen the hands that are feeble,/ make firm the knees that are weak,/ say to those whose hearts are frightened:/ Be strong, fear not!/ Here is your God,/ he comes with vindication;/ with divine re­compense/ he comes to save you./ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,/ the ears of the deaf be cleared;/ then will the lame leap like a stag,/ then the tongue of the mute will sing.

When John the Baptist heard in prison of the works of the Christ, he sent his disciples to Jesus with this question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.

In those days,/ like a fire there appeared the prophet Elijah/ whose words were as a flaming furnace./ Their staff of bread he shattered,/ in his zeal he reduced them to straits;/ By the Lord’s word he shut up the heavens/ and three times brought down fire./ How awesome are you, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!/ Whose glory is equal to yours?/ You were taken aloft in a whirlwind of fire,/ in a chariot with fiery horses./ You were destined, it is written, in time to come/ to put an end to wrath before the day of the Lord,/ To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons,/ and to re-establish the tribes of Jacob./ Blessed is he who shall have seen you/ and who falls asleep in your friendship.

As they were coming down from the mountain, the ­disciples asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” He said in reply, “Elijah will indeed come and restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased.

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.

Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion!