First Reading

When peaceful stillness compassed everything

and the night in its swift course was half spent,

Your all-powerful word, from heaven’s royal throne

bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land,

bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree.

And as he alighted, he filled every place with death;

he still reached to heaven, while he stood upon the earth.

For all creation, in its several kinds, was being made over anew,

serving its natural laws,

that your children might be preserved unharmed.

The cloud overshadowed their camp;

and out of what had before been water, dry land was seen emerging:

Out of the Red Sea an unimpeded road,

and a grassy plain out of the mighty flood.

Over this crossed the whole nation sheltered by your hand,

after they beheld stupendous wonders.

For they ranged about like horses,

and bounded about like lambs,

praising you, O Lord! their deliverer.