Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 14 : 2-3ab, 3cd-4ab, 5
Those who walk blamelessly and do what is right, who speak truth from their heart and control their words, who do no harm to their neighbours.
Those who cast no discredit on their companions, who look down on evildoers but highly esteem God’s servants.
Who do not lend money at interest and refuse a bribe against the innocent. Do this, and you will soon be shaken.
Liturgical Colour : White
Isaiah 38 : 10, 11, 12abcd, 16
Once I said : In the noontime of my life I go; I am sent to the land of the dead, for the rest of my years.
I said : Never again shall I see YHVH in the land of the living; never again shall I see the inhabitants of the earth.
Like a shepherd’s tent, my dwelling has been pulled down and thrown away; like a weaver, You rolled up my life and cut it from the loom.
O Lord, give me back my health and give me back my life!
Liturgical Colour : White
Isaiah 38 : 1-6, 21-22, 7-8
In those days Hezekiah fell mortally ill and the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, went to him with a message from YHVH, “Put your house in order for you shall die; you shall not live.”
Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to YHVH, “Ah YHVH! Remember how I have walked before You in truth and wholeheartedly, and done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Then the word of YHVH came to Isaiah, “Go and tell Hezekiah what YHVH, the God of his father David, says : I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. See! I am adding fifteen years to your life and I will save you and this city from the power of the king of Assyria. I will defend it for My sake and for the sake of David My servant.”
Isaiah then said, “Bring a fig cake to rub on the ulcer and let Hezekiah be cured!” Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?” Isaiah answered, “This shall be for you a sign from YHVH, that He will do what He has promised. See! I shall make the shadow descending on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had covered on the stairway.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Matthew 11 : 28-30
At that time, Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who work hard and who carry heavy burdens, and I will refresh you. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest. For My yoke is good, and My burden is light.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Isaiah 26 : 7-9, 12, 16-19
Let the righteous walk in righteousness. You make smooth the path of the just, and we only seek the way of Your laws, o YHVH. Your Name and Your memory are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for You in the night; for You my spirit keeps vigil. When Your judgments come to earth, the world’s inhabitants learn to be upright.
YHVH, please give us peace; for all that we accomplish is Your work. For they sought You in distress, they cried out to You in the time of their punishment. As a woman in travail moans and writhes in pain, so are we now in Your presence. We conceived, we had labour pains, but we gave birth to the wind. We have not brought salvation to the land; the inhabitants of a new world have not been born.
Your dead will live! Their corpses will rise! Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust! Let Your dew fall, o Lord, like a dew of light, and the earth will throw out her dead.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White
Psalm 93 : 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 14-15
They crush Your people, o Lord, they oppress Your inheritance. They murder the widow and the lonely, they massacre the helpless.
“The Lord does not see,” they say, “The God of Jacob does not care.” Remember this, you stupid people, when will you understand, you fools!
He Who made the ear, will He not hear? He Who formed the eye, will He not see? He Who rebukes nations, will He not punish them?
The Lord will not reject His people nor will He forsake His heritage. Justice will return to the just, and the upright will follow in its wake.
Liturgical Colour : Green or White
Isaiah 10 : 5-7, 13-16
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger, the staff of My fury! Against a godless nation I send him, against a people who provoke My wrath I dispatch him, to plunder and pillage, to tread them down like mud in the streets. But the mind of his king is far from this, his heart harbours other thoughts; what he wants is to destroy, to make an end of all nations.
For the king says : “By my own strength I have done this and by my own wisdom, for I am clever. I have moved the frontiers of peoples, I have plundered treasures, I have brought inhabitants down to the dust, I have toppled kings from their thrones. As one reaches into a nest, so my hands have reached into nations’ wealth. As one gathers deserted eggs, so have I gathered the riches of the earth. No one flapped a wing or opened its mouth to chirp a protest.”
Does the axe claim more credit than the man who wields it? Does the saw magnify itself more than the one who uses it? This would be like a rod wielding the man who lifts it up; will those not made of wood, be controlled by the cudgel? Therefore the Lord, YHVH Sabaoth, is ready to send a wasting sickness upon the king’s sturdy warriors. Beneath his plenty, a flame will burn like a consuming fire.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 47 : 2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Great is the Lord, most worthy of praise in the city of God, His holy mountain.
Beautifully elevated, it is the joy of all the earth – Mount Zion, heavenly mountain, the city of the great King. Here within her lines of defence, God has shown Himself to be a sure Fortress.
The kings assembled together, advanced toward the city. But as soon as they saw it, they were astounded; they panicked and took to flight.
Seized with fear, they trembled, like a woman in travail, or like the ships of Tarshish, shattered by a strong wind from the east.
Liturgical Colour : Green
Isaiah 7 : 1-9
When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, laid siege to Jerusalem but they were unable to capture it.
When the news reached the house of David, “Aram’s troops are encamped in Ephraim,” the heart of the king and the hearts of the people trembled as the trees of the forest tremble before the wind.
YHVH then said to Isaiah, “Go with your son A-remnant-will-return, and meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field. Say to him, “Stay calm and fear not; do not lose courage before these two stumps of smouldering firebrands – the fierce anger of Rezin the Aramean and the blazing fury of the son of Remaliah. You know that Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted against Judah, saying : Let us invade and scare it, let us seize it and put the son of Tabeel king over it.”
“But the Lord YHVH says : It shall not be so, it shall not come to pass. For Damascus is only the head of Aram and Rezin the lord of Damascus. Samaria is only the head of Ephraim and Remaliah’s son is only the lord of Samaria. Within fifty-six years, Ephraim will be shattered and will no longer be a people. But if you do not stand firm in faith, you, too, will not stand at all.”
Liturgical Colour : White
Isaiah 1 : 10-17
Hear the warning of YHVH, rulers of Sodom. Listen to the word of God, people of Gomorrah.
“What do I care,” says YHVH “for your endless sacrifices? I am fed up with your burnt offerings, and the fat of your bulls. The blood of fatlings, and lambs and he-goats I abhor.”
“When you come before Me and trample on My courts, who asked you to visit Me? I am fed up with your oblations. I grow sick with your incense. Your New Moons, Sabbaths and meetings, evil with holy assemblies, I can no longer bear.”
“I hate your New Moons and appointed feasts, they burden Me. When you stretch out your hands I will close My eyes; the more you pray, the more I refuse to listen, for your hands are bloody. Wash and make yourselves clean. Remove from My sight the evil of your deeds.”
“Put an end to your wickedness and learn to do good. Seek justice and keep in line the abusers; give the fatherless their rights and defend the widow.”
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 