Day 245: The Faithfulness of Daniel (2026)

**Fr. Mike Schmitz** (0:04)
Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to The Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using The Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 245 Well done. We're reading Jeremiah 31, as well as Daniel 14 So the last chapter in Daniel, as well as one chapter from Jeremiah, we're also reading Proverbs 16, verses 21-24. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, the Second Catholic Edition. I'm using The Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com/bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe in wherever you listen to podcasts, unless it prohibits you from subscribing for whatever reason. That'd be so strange that wouldn't it?
I can't say the word subscribe today, it doesn't matter. I don't think the word subscribe is in either Jeremiah 31 or Daniel 14, but here we are reading Day 245, Jeremiah 31, Daniel 14, Proverbs 16 verses 21 through 24
The Book of the Prophet, Jeremiah chapter 31 At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus says the Lord, The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness. When Israel sought for rest, the Lord appeared to him from afar.
I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again, I will build you, and you shall be built, O Virgin Israel. Again, you shall adorn yourself with timbrels, and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. Again, you shall plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria. The planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit. For there shall be a day when watchmen will call in the hill country of Ephraim, Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God. For thus says the Lord, Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations. Proclaim, give praise, and say, The Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth. Among them, the blind and the lame, the woman with child, and her who has labor pains together. A great company, they shall return here. With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back. I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the islands afar off. Say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock. For the Lord has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from the hands too strong for him. They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd. Their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.
Then shall the maidens rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow. I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says the Lord. Thus says the Lord. A voice is heard in Rama, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children because they are not.
Thus says the Lord. Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears. For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, says the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country. I have heard Ephraim bemoaning, You have chastened me, and I was chastened. Like an untrained calf, bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the Lord my God. For after I had turned away, I repented, and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, and I was confounded, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.