A reading from
the Book of the Prophet Isaiah41:13-20
I am the Lord, your God,/ who grasp your right hand;/ It is I who say to you, “Fear not,/ I will help you.”/ Fear not, O worm Jacob,/ O maggot Israel;/ I will help you, says the Lord;/ your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel./ I will make of you a threshing sledge,/ sharp, new, and double-edged,/ To thresh the mountains and crush them,/ to make the hills like chaff./ When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off/ and the storm shall scatter them./ But you shall rejoice in the Lord,/ and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain,/ their tongues are parched with thirst./ I, the Lord, will answer them;/ I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them./ I will open up rivers on the bare heights,/ and fountains in the broad valleys;/ I will turn the desert into a marshland,/ and the dry ground into springs of water./ I will plant in the desert the cedar,/ acacia, myrtle, and olive;/ I will set in the wasteland the cypress,/ together with the plane tree and the pine,/ That all may see and know,/ observe and understand,/ That the hand of the Lord has done this,/ the Holy One of Israel has created it.
The word of the Lord.
