Peace be with you.
Here are a few quotes you might find interesting.
I, WHO erewhile the happy Garden sung
By one man's disobedience lost, now sing
Recovered Paradise to all mankind,
By one man's firm obedience fully tried
Through all temptation, and the Tempter foiled
In all his wiles, defeated and repulsed,
And Eden raised in the waste Wilderness.
Thou Spirit, who led'st this glorious Eremite
Into the desert, his victorious field
Against the spiritual foe, and brought'st him thence
By proof the undoubted Son of God, inspire,
As thou art wont, my prompted song, else mute,
And bear through highth or depth of Nature's bounds,
With prosperous wing full summed, to tell of deeds
Above heroic, though in secret done,
And unrecorded left through many an age:
Worthy to have not remained so long unsung.
Now had the great Proclaimer, with a voice
More awful than the sound of trumpet, cried
Repentance, and Heaven's kingdom nigh at hand
To all baptized. To his great baptism flocked
With awe the regions round, and with them came
From Nazareth the son of Joseph deemed
To the flood Jordan--came as then obscure,
Unmarked, unknown. But him the Baptist soon
Descried, divinely warned, and witness bore
As to his worthier, and would have resigned
To him his heavenly office. Nor was long
His witness unconfirmed: on him baptized
Heaven opened, and in likeness of a Dove
The Spirit descended, while the Father's voice
From Heaven pronounced him his beloved Son.
The preaching of John: Christ is baptized.
3:1. And in those days cometh John the Baptist preaching in the desert of Judea.
3:2. And saying: Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Do penance... Paenitentiam agite. Which word, according to the use of the scriptures and the holy fathers, does not only signify repentance and amendment of life, but also punishing past sins by fasting, and such like penitential exercises.
3:3. For this is he that was spoken of by Isaias the prophet, saying: A voice of one crying in the desert, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.
3:4. And the same John had his garment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins: and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
3:5. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the country about Jordan:
3:6. And were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
3:7. And seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come?
Pharisees and Sadducees... These were two sects among the Jews: of which the former were for the most part notorious hypocrites; the latter, a kind of freethinkers in matters of religion.
3:8. Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance.
3:9. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I tell you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
3:10. For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire.
3:11. I indeed baptize you in water unto penance, but he that shall come after me, is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire.
3:12. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
3:13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan, unto John, to be baptized by him.
3:14. But John stayed him, saying: I ought to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me?
3:15. And Jesus answering, said to him: Suffer it to be so now. For so it becometh us to fulfil all justice. Then he suffered him.
3:16. And Jesus being baptized, forthwith came out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened to him: and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him.
3:17. And behold a voice from heaven saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
The prophet comforts the people with the promise of the coming of Christ to forgive their sins. God's almighty power and majesty.
40:1. Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your God.
40:2. Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her: for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven: she hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.
40:3. The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God.
40:4. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain.
40:5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken.
40:6. The voice of one, saying: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field.
40:7. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen, because the spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it. Indeed the people is grass:
40:8. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen: but the word of our Lord endureth for ever.
40:9. Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion: lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God:
40:10. Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm shall rule: Behold his reward is with him and his work is before him.
40:11. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather together the lambs with his arm, and shall take them up in his bosom, and he himself shall carry them that are with young.
40:12. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and weighed the heavens with his palm? who hath poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
40:13. Who hath forwarded the spirit of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor, and hath taught him?
40:14. With whom hath he consulted, and who hath instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and shewed him the way of understanding?
40:15. Behold the Gentiles are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the smallest grain of a balance: behold the islands are as a little dust.
40:16. And Libanus shall not be enough to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
40:17. All nations are before him as if they had no being at all, and are counted to him as nothing, and vanity.
40:18. To whom then have you likened God? or what image will you make for him?
40:19. Hath the workman cast a graven statue? or hath the goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver?
40:20. He hath chosen strong wood, and that will not rot: the skilful workman seeketh how he may set up an idol that may not be moved.
40:21. Do you not know? hath it not been heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood the foundations of the earth?
40:22. It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.
40:23. He that bringeth the searchers of secrets to nothing, that hath made the judges of the earth as vanity.
40:24. And surely their stock was neither planted, nor sown, nor rooted in the earth: suddenly he hath blown upon them, and they are withered, and a whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
40:25. And to whom have ye likened me, or made me equal, saith the Holy One?
40:26. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these things: who bringeth out their host by number, and calleth them all by their names: by the greatness of his might, and strength, and power, not one of them was missing.
40:27. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel: My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
40:28. Knowest thou not, or hast thou not heard? the Lord is the everlasting God, who hath created the ends of the earth: he shall not faint, nor labour, neither is there any searching out of his wisdom.
40:29. It is he that giveth strength to the weary, and increaseth force and might to them that are not.
40:30. You shall faint, and labour, and young men shall fall by infirmity.
40:31. But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
