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Springtime Rhapsody

⁸ The voice of my beloved!
   Look, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
   bounding over the hills.
⁹ My beloved is like a gazelle
   or a young stag.
Look, there he stands
   behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
   looking through the lattice.
¹⁰ My beloved speaks and says to me:
‘Arise, my love, my fair one,
   and come away;
¹¹ for now the winter is past,
   the rain is over and gone.
¹² The flowers appear on the earth;
   the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtle-dove
   is heard in our land.
¹³ The fig tree puts forth its figs,
   and the vines are in blossom;
   they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
   and come away.
¹⁴ O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
   in the covert of the cliff,
let me see your face,
   let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
   and your face is lovely.

A Song of Joy

¹⁴ Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;
   shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
   O daughter Jerusalem!
¹⁵ The Lord has taken away the judgements against you,
   he has turned away your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
   you shall fear disaster no more.
¹⁶ On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Do not fear, O Zion;
   do not let your hands grow weak.
¹⁷ The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
   a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
   he will renew you^* in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
¹⁸   as on a day of festival.^*
I will remove disaster from you,^*
   so that you will not bear reproach for it.

Psalm 33

The Greatness and Goodness of God

¹ Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous.
   Praise befits the upright.
² Praise the Lord with the lyre;
   make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.
³ Sing to him a new song;
   play skilfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

¹¹ The counsel of the Lord stands for ever,
   the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
¹² Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
   the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

²⁰ Our soul waits for the Lord;
   he is our help and shield.
²¹ Our heart is glad in him,
   because we trust in his holy name.

Mary Visits Elizabeth

39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, ⁴⁰where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit ⁴²and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. ⁴³And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? ⁴⁴For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. ⁴⁵And blessed is she who believed that there would be^* a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’