Daily Readings: April 29, 2024

Monday after the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Catherine of Siena, 1380

Morning	Evening
Psalm 56 Psalm 57 Psalm 58	Psalm 64 Psalm 65
Lev. 16:1-19 1 Thess. 4:13-18 Matt. 6:1-6,16-18

The Collect of the Day

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Catherine of Siena

Almighty and everlasting God, who kindled the flame of thy love in the heart of your servant Catherine of Siena: Grant unto us the same strength of conviction and power of love that, as we rejoice in her triumph, we may profit by her example; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Psalms

56

Miserere mei, DeusBCP p. 662

¹Have mercy on me, O God, for my enemies are hounding me; *all day long they assault and oppress me.

²They hound me all the day long; *truly there are many who fight against me, O Most High.

³Whenever I am afraid, *I will put my trust in you.

⁴In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust and will not be afraid, *for what can flesh do to me?

⁵All day long they damage my cause; *their only thought is to do me evil.

⁶They band together; they lie in wait; *they spy upon my footsteps; because they seek my life.

⁷Shall they escape despite their wickedness? *O God, in your anger, cast down the peoples.

⁸You have noted my lamentation; put my tears into your bottle; *are they not recorded in your book?

⁹Whenever I call upon you, my enemies will be put to flight; *this I know, for God is on my side.

¹⁰In God the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust and will not be afraid, *for what can mortals do to me?

¹¹I am bound by the vow I made to you, O God; *I will present to you thank-offerings;

¹²For you have rescued my soul from death and my feet from stumbling, *that I may walk before God in the light of the living.

57

Miserere mei, DeusBCP p. 663

¹Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful, for I have taken refuge in you; *in the shadow of your wings will I take refuge until this time of trouble has gone by.

²I will call upon the Most High God, *the God who maintains my cause.

³He will send from heaven and save me; he will confound those who trample upon me; *God will send forth his love and his faithfulness.

⁴I lie in the midst of lions that devour the people; *their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongue a sharp sword.

⁵They have laid a net for my feet, and I am bowed low; *they have dug a pit before me, but have fallen into it themselves.

⁶Exalt yourself above the heavens, O God, *and your glory over all the earth.

⁷My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; *I will sing and make melody.

⁸Wake up, my spirit; awake, lute and harp; *I myself will waken the dawn.

⁹I will confess you among the peoples, O Lord; *I will sing praise to you among the nations.

¹⁰For your loving-kindness is greater than the heavens, *and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

¹¹Exalt yourself above the heavens, O God, *and your glory over all the earth.

58

Si vere utiqueBCP p. 664

¹Do you indeed decree righteousness, you rulers? *do you judge the peoples with equity?

²No; you devise evil in your hearts, *and your hands deal out violence in the land.

³The wicked are perverse from the womb; *liars go astray from their birth.

⁴They are as venomous as a serpent, *they are like the deaf adder which stops its ears,

⁵Which does not heed the voice of the charmer, *no matter how skillful his charming.

⁶O God, break their teeth in their mouths; *pull the fangs of the young lions, O Lord.

⁷Let them vanish like water that runs off; *let them wither like trodden grass.

⁸Let them be like the snail that melts away, *like a stillborn child that never sees the sun.

⁹Before they bear fruit, let them be cut down like a brier; *like thorns and thistles let them be swept away.

¹⁰The righteous will be glad when they see the vengeance; *they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹And they will say, “Surely, there is a reward for the righteous; *surely, there is a God who rules in the earth.”

Daily Office Readings

Lev. 16:1-19

A Reading from the Book of Leviticus.

¹The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died. ²The Lord said to Moses: Tell your brother Aaron not to come just at any time into the sanctuary inside the curtain before the mercy seat that is upon the ark, or he will die; for I appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. ³Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁴He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and shall have the linen undergarments next to his body, fasten the linen sash, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy vestments. He shall bathe his body in water, and then put them on. ⁵He shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. ⁶Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. ⁷He shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting; ⁸and Aaron shall cast lots on the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. ⁹Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord, and offer it as a sin offering; ¹⁰but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. ¹¹Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house; he shall slaughter the bull as a sin offering for himself. ¹²He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of crushed sweet incense, and he shall bring it inside the curtain ¹³and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the covenant, or he will die. ¹⁴He shall take some of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle the blood with his finger seven times. ¹⁵He shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the curtain, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. ¹⁶Thus he shall make atonement for the sanctuary, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel, and because of their transgressions, all their sins; and so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which remains with them in the midst of their uncleannes ¹⁷No one shall be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the sanctuary until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. ¹⁸Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement on its behalf, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat, and put it on each of the horns of the altar. ¹⁹He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel.

1 Thess. 4:13-18

A Reading from the First Letter to the thessalonians.

¹³But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. ¹⁵For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. ¹⁶For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.