Preparing for the Twentieth
Sunday after Pentecost
Year C

Daily Readings for Friday
October 24, 2025

Prayer

O Wellspring of salvation, 

we come to you in joy, 

for you have heard the prayers of the poor 

and raised up the lowly. 

Pour out your Spirit on young and old alike, 

that our dreams and visions may bring 

justice and peace to the world. Amen.

 

Psalm 65

Your paths overflow with plenty

 

Praise is due to you,

O God, in Zion;

and to you shall vows be performed,

O you who answer prayer!

To you all flesh shall come.

When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us,

you forgive our transgressions.

Happy are those whom you choose and bring near

to live in your courts.

We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,

your holy temple.

By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance,

O God of our salvation;

you are the hope of all the ends of the earth

and of the farthest seas.

By your strength you established the mountains;

you are girded with might.

You silence the roaring of the seas,

the roaring of their waves,

the tumult of the peoples.

Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs;

you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.

You visit the earth and water it,

you greatly enrich it;

the river of God is full of water;

you provide the people with grain,

for so you have prepared it.

You water its furrows abundantly,

settling its ridges,

softening it with showers,

and blessing its growth.

You crown the year with your bounty;

your wagon tracks overflow with richness.

The pastures of the wilderness overflow,

the hills gird themselves with joy,

the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,

the valleys deck themselves with grain,

they shout and sing together for joy.

 

Joel 2:1-11

The day of the Lord

 

Blow the trumpet in Zion;

sound the alarm on my holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near—

a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of clouds and thick darkness!

Like blackness spread upon the mountains

a great and powerful army comes;

their like has never been from of old,

nor will be again after them

in ages to come.

Fire devours in front of them,

and behind them a flame burns.

Before them the land is like the garden of Eden,

but after them a desolate wilderness,

and nothing escapes them.

They have the appearance of horses,

and like war-horses they charge.

As with the rumbling of chariots,

they leap on the tops of the mountains,

like the crackling of a flame of fire

devouring the stubble,

like a powerful army

drawn up for battle.

Before them peoples are in anguish,

all faces grow pale.

Like warriors they charge,

like soldiers they scale the wall.

Each keeps to its own course,

they do not swerve from their paths.

They do not jostle one another,

each keeps to its own track;

they burst through the weapons

and are not halted.

They leap upon the city,

they run upon the walls;

they climb up into the houses,

they enter through the windows like a thief.

The earth quakes before them,

the heavens tremble.

The sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

The Lord utters his voice

at the head of his army;

how vast is his host!

Numberless are those who obey his command.

Truly the day of the Lord is great;

terrible indeed—who can endure it?

 

2 Timothy 3:10-15

The persecution of the godly

 

Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

 

 

Prayer

O God, 

the strength of those who humbly confess their sin 

and place their hope in you, 

save us from vain displays of righteousness, 

and give us grace to keep faith 

with the true humility of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

Psalm 84:1-7

Happy are they whose strength is in you

 

How lovely is your dwelling place,

Lord of hosts!

My soul longs, indeed it faints

for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and my flesh sing for joy

to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may lay her young,

at your altars, O Lord of hosts,

my King and my God.

Happy are those who live in your house,

ever singing your praise.    Selah

Happy are those whose strength is in you,

in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

As they go through the valley of Baca

they make it a place of springs;

the early rain also covers it with pools.

They go from strength to strength;

the God of gods will be seen in Zion.

 

Jeremiah 9:17-26

Israel uncircumcised in heart

 

Thus says the Lord of hosts:

Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;

send for the skilled women to come;

let them quickly raise a dirge over us,

so that our eyes may run down with tears,

and our eyelids flow with water.

For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:

“How we are ruined!

We are utterly shamed,

because we have left the land,

because they have cast down our dwellings.”

Hear, O women, the word of the Lord,

and let your ears receive the word of his mouth;

teach to your daughters a dirge,

and each to her neighbor a lament.

“Death has come up into our windows,

it has entered our palaces,

to cut off the children from the streets

and the young men from the squares.”

Speak! Thus says the Lord:

“Human corpses shall fall

like dung upon the open field,

like sheaves behind the reaper,

and no one shall gather them.”

 

Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.

 

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will attend to all those who are circumcised only in the foreskin: Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all those with shaven temples who live in the desert. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.

 

2 Timothy 3:10-15

The persecution of the godly

 

Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

 

 

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Prayer reprinted from Revised Common Lectionary Prayers, © 2002 Consultation on Common Texts. Reproduced by permission.

Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings copyright © 2005 Consultation on Common Texts admin. Augsburg Fortress. Reproduced by permission. No further reproduction allowed without the written permission of Augsburg Fortress.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


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