Christmas

7How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger and the preacher of peace! Announcing good and preaching peace, they are saying to Zion, “Your God will reign!” 8It is the voice of your watchmen. They have lifted up their voice. They will praise together. For they will see eye to eye, when the Lord converts Zion. 9Be glad and rejoice together, O deserts of Jerusalem! For the Lord has consoled his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. 10The Lord has prepared his holy arm, in the sight of all the Gentiles. And all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

1A Psalm of David himself. Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has performed wonders. His right hand has accomplished salvation for him, with his holy arm.

2The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his justice in the sight of the nations.

3He has remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

4Sing joyfully to God, all the earth. Sing and exult, and sing psalms.

5Sing psalms to the Lord with stringed instruments, with strings and the voice of a psalmist,

6with subtle wind instruments and the voice of woodwinds. Make a joyful noise before the Lord our king.

1In many places and in many ways, in past times, God spoke to the fathers through the Prophets; 2lastly, in these days, he has spoken to us through the Son, whom he appointed as the heir of all things, and through whom he made the world. 3And since the Son is the brightness of his glory, and the figure of his substance, and is carrying all things by the Word of his virtue, thereby accomplishing a purging of sins, he sits at the right hand of Majesty on high. 4And having been made so much better than the Angels, he has inherited a name so much greater than theirs. 5For to which of the Angels has he ever said: “You are my Son; today have I begotten you?” Or again: “I will be a Father to him, and he shall be a Son to me?” 6And again, when he brings the only-begotten Son into the world, he says: “And let all the Angels of God adore him.”

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3All things were made through Him, and nothing that was made was made without Him. 4Life was in Him, and Life was the light of men. 5And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 6There was a man sent by God, whose name was John. 7He arrived as a witness to offer testimony about the Light, so that all would believe through him. 8He was not the Light, but he was to offer testimony about the Light. 9The true Light, which illuminates every man, was coming into this world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not recognize him. 11He went to his own, and his own did not accept him. 12Yet whoever did accept him, those who believed in his name, he gave them the power to become the sons of God. 13These are born, not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh, and he lived among us, and we saw his glory, glory like that of an only-begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15John offers testimony about him, and he cries out, saying: “This is the one about whom I said: ‘He who is to come after me, has been placed ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ ” 16And from his fullness, we all have received, even grace for grace. 17For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one ever saw God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he himself has described him.