December 9th : First Reading I, the Holy One of Israel, am your redeemer.A Reading from the Book of Isaiah 41: 13-20.

December 9th :  First Reading 

I, the Holy One of Israel, am your redeemer.

A Reading from the Book of Isaiah 41: 13-20.

I, the Lord, your God,

I am holding you by the right hand;

I tell you, ‘Do not be afraid,

I will help you.’

Do not be afraid, Jacob, poor worm,

Israel, puny mite.

I will help you – it is the Lord who speaks –

the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer.

See, I turn you into a threshing-sled,

new, with doubled teeth;

you shall thresh and crush the mountains,

and turn the hills to chaff.

You shall winnow them and the wind will blow them away,

the gale will scatter them.

But you yourself will rejoice in the Lord,

and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

The poor and needy ask for water, and there is none,

their tongue is parched with thirst.

I, the Lord, will answer them,

I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

I will make rivers well up on barren heights,

and fountains in the midst of valleys;

turn the wilderness into a lake,

and dry ground into waterspring.

In the wilderness I will put cedar trees,

acacias, myrtles, olives.

In the desert I will plant juniper,

plane tree and cypress side by side;

so that men may see and know,

may all observe and understand

that the hand of the Lord has done this,

that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

The Word of the Lord.