Daily Reading for Friday, December 21st, 2012

Reading 1, Song of Songs 2:8-14

⁸ BELOVED: I hear my love. See how he comes leaping on the mountains, bounding over the hills.

⁹ My love is like a gazelle, like a young stag. See where he stands behind our wall. He looks in at the window, he peers through the opening.

¹⁰ My love lifts up his voice, he says to me, 'Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come.

¹¹ For see, winter is past, the rains are over and gone.

¹² 'Flowers are appearing on the earth. The season of glad songs has come, the cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land.

¹³ The fig tree is forming its first figs and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance. Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come.

¹⁴ 'My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.'

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21

² Give thanks to Yahweh on the lyre, play for him on the ten-stringed lyre.

³ Sing to him a new song, make sweet music for your cry of victory.

¹¹ but Yahweh's own plan stands firm for ever, his heart's counsel from age to age.

¹² How blessed the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people he has chosen as his heritage.

²⁰ We are waiting for Yahweh; he is our help and our shield,

²¹ for in him our heart rejoices, in his holy name we trust.