Annunciation

Ascensiontide

⁶So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” ⁹When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. ¹¹They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Alcuin of York

Isaiah 26
We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks.
Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith
may enter in. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord for ever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
The way of the righteous is level;
you who are upright make smooth the path of the righteous.
In the path of your judgements, O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and renown is the desire of our soul.
My soul yearns for you in the night,
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgements are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,
for indeed all that we have done you have done for us.

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.--CS Lewis

John 15

15”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. ²He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. ³You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. ⁵I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

1 Peter 1

Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ!
By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading,
kept in heaven for you,
Who are being protected by the power of God through faith,
for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
You were ransomed from the futile ways of your ancestors
not with perishable things like silver or gold
But with the precious blood of Christ
like that of a lamb without spot or stain.
Through him you have confidence in God,
who raised him from the dead and gave him glory,
so that your faith and hope are set on God.

Hebrews 10

And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, 'he sat down at the right hand of God', and since then has been waiting 'until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.' For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified