In the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberias Caesar,
as Pontius Pilate governed Judea
and Herod was Tetrarch of Galilee
and Philip his brother was Tetrarch of the land of Iturea and Trichonitis
and Lysanias was Tetrarch of Abilene
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas
it happened that the word of God
came to John, son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
And he went about in all the neighbourhood of the Jordan
preaching a baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins.
As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet:
A voice, crying in the wilderness
prepare the road for the Lord
make straight his paths.
Every valley will be filled,
and every mountain and hill will be humbled,
and the crooked will be straightened
and the rough ways smoothed
and all flesh will see the salvation of God.1
- Isaiah 40 3-5 ↩︎
Grant, Lord,
that we may hold to you without parting,
worship you without wearying,
serve you without failing;
faithfully seek you,
happily find you,
and forever possess you,
the only God,blessed now and for ever.
Amen
St Anselm