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Daily Readings For May 2

Please note that two distinct lectionaries are provided on this page: the two-year Daily Lectionary from the Book of Common Worship and the three-year Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) for Sundays and festivals; be sure you select the appropriate one.

Daily Readings Sunday/Festival Readings

Daily Readings for Tuesday, May 2, 2023


Morning Psalm 98

1   O sing to the LORD a new song,
          for he has done marvelous things.
     His right hand and his holy arm
          have gained him victory.
2   The LORD has made known his victory;
          he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.
3   He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
          to the house of Israel.
     All the ends of the earth have seen
          the victory of our God.


4   Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth;
          break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
5   Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre,
          with the lyre and the sound of melody.
6   With trumpets and the sound of the horn
          make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD.


7   Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
          the world and those who live in it.
8   Let the floods clap their hands;
          let the hills sing together for joy
9   at the presence of the LORD, for he is coming
          to judge the earth.
     He will judge the world with righteousness,
          and the peoples with equity.

Morning Psalm 146

1   Praise the LORD!
     Praise the LORD, O my soul!
2   I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
          I will sing praises to my God all my life long.


3   Do not put your trust in princes,
          in mortals, in whom there is no help.
4   When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
          on that very day their plans perish.


5   Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
          whose hope is in the LORD their God,
6   who made heaven and earth,
          the sea, and all that is in them;
     who keeps faith forever;
7        who executes justice for the oppressed;
          who gives food to the hungry.


     The LORD sets the prisoners free;
8        the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
     The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
          the LORD loves the righteous.
9   The LORD watches over the strangers;
          he upholds the orphan and the widow,
          but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.


10  The LORD will reign forever,
          your God, O Zion, for all generations.
     Praise the LORD!

First Reading Jeremiah 30:10-17

10  But as for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob, says the LORD,
          and do not be dismayed, O Israel;
     for I am going to save you from far away,
          and your offspring from the land of their captivity.
     Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,
          and no one shall make him afraid.
11  For I am with you, says the LORD, to save you;
     I will make an end of all the nations
          among which I scattered you,
          but of you I will not make an end.
     I will chastise you in just measure,
          and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

12  For thus says the LORD:
     Your hurt is incurable,
          your wound is grievous.
13  There is no one to uphold your cause,
          no medicine for your wound,
          no healing for you.
14  All your lovers have forgotten you;
          they care nothing for you;
     for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy,
          the punishment of a merciless foe,
     because your guilt is great,
          because your sins are so numerous.
15  Why do you cry out over your hurt?
          Your pain is incurable.
     Because your guilt is great,
          because your sins are so numerous,
          I have done these things to you.
16  Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured,
          and all your foes, everyone of them, shall go into captivity;
     those who plunder you shall be plundered,
          and all who prey on you I will make a prey.
17  For I will restore health to you,
          and your wounds I will heal,
                                                            says the LORD,
     because they have called you an outcast:
          “It is Zion; no one cares for her!”

Second Reading Colossians 1:15-23

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers — all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

21And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him — 23provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

Gospel Reading Luke 6:12-26

12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: 14Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

17He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

20Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
     “Blessed are you who are poor,
          for yours is the kingdom of God.
21  “Blessed are you who are hungry now,
          for you will be filled.
     “Blessed are you who weep now,
          for you will laugh.

22“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
24  “But woe to you who are rich,
          for you have received your consolation.
25  “Woe to you who are full now,
          for you will be hungry.
     “Woe to you who are laughing now,
          for you will mourn and weep.

26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”

Evening Psalm 66

1   Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
2        sing the glory of his name;
          give to him glorious praise.
3   Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
          Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.
4   All the earth worships you;
          they sing praises to you,
          sing praises to your name. Selah


5   Come and see what God has done:
          he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.
6   He turned the sea into dry land;
          they passed through the river on foot.
     There we rejoiced in him,
7        who rules by his might forever,
     whose eyes keep watch on the nations —
          let the rebellious not exalt themselves. Selah


8   Bless our God, O peoples,
          let the sound of his praise be heard,
9   who has kept us among the living,
          and has not let our feet slip.
10  For you, O God, have tested us;
          you have tried us as silver is tried.
11  You brought us into the net;
          you laid burdens on our backs;
12  you let people ride over our heads;
          we went through fire and through water;
     yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.


13  I will come into your house with burnt offerings;
          I will pay you my vows,
14  those that my lips uttered
          and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15  I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings,
          with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;
     I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah


16  Come and hear, all you who fear God,
          and I will tell what he has done for me.
17  I cried aloud to him,
          and he was extolled with my tongue.
18  If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
          the Lord would not have listened.
19  But truly God has listened;
          he has given heed to the words of my prayer.


20  Blessed be God,
          because he has not rejected my prayer
          or removed his steadfast love from me.

Evening Psalm 116

1   I love the LORD, because he has heard
          my voice and my supplications.
2   Because he inclined his ear to me,
          therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3   The snares of death encompassed me;
          the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
          I suffered distress and anguish.
4   Then I called on the name of the LORD:
          “O LORD, I pray, save my life!”


5   Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
          our God is merciful.
6   The LORD protects the simple;
          when I was brought low, he saved me.
7   Return, O my soul, to your rest,
          for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.


8   For you have delivered my soul from death,
          my eyes from tears,
          my feet from stumbling.
9   I walk before the LORD
          in the land of the living.
10  I kept my faith, even when I said,
          “I am greatly afflicted”;
11  I said in my consternation,
          “Everyone is a liar.”


12  What shall I return to the LORD
          for all his bounty to me?
13   I will lift up the cup of salvation
          and call on the name of the LORD,
14  I will pay my vows to the LORD
          in the presence of all his people.
15  Precious in the sight of the LORD
          is the death of his faithful ones.
16  O LORD, I am your servant;
          I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.
          You have loosed my bonds.
17  I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
          and call on the name of the LORD.
18  I will pay my vows to the LORD
          in the presence of all his people,
19  in the courts of the house of the LORD,
          in your midst, O Jerusalem.
     Praise the LORD!