Deacon:  Wisdom. Stand up. Hear the Holy Gospel.

Priest:    Peace to you all.

People:   And to your spirit.

Deacon:   The beginning of the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [1:1-25]

People:  Glory to You Lord. Glory to You.

Priest:   Listen.

Deacon:

This is the ancestry of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah. Tamar was their mother.
Perez was the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram was the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon was the father of Boaz. Rahab was his mother.
Boaz was the father of Obed. Ruth was his mother.
Obed was the father of Jesse,
And Jesse was the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.
Solomon was the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam was the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,
Joram the father of Azariah,
Azariah was the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
And Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers.
Then the deportation to Babylon took place.

After the deportation to Babylon,
Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud,
Abiud was the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim was the father of Azor,
Azor was the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Eliud,
Eliud was the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan
Matthan the father of Jacob,
And Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary.
Of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.

The total generations is therefore fourteen from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the Babylonian deportation, and fourteen from the Babylonian deportation to Christ.

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born.

His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph. But before they started living together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

Her husband Joseph was a man of honour and wanted to spare her bad publicity. So he decided to divorce her informally.

He had made up his mind to do this when an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home to be your wife.  She has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one to save his people from their sins.’

Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

           The virgin will conceive and bear a son
           And they will call him Emmanuel

The name means God-is-with-us.

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord told him to do. He took his wife to his home, and although he had no intercourse with her, she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.

People: Glory to You Lord, Glory to You.