Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen. It was for faith that our ancestors were commended.

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going. By faith he arrived, as a foreigner, in the Promised Land, and lived there as if in a strange country, with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. They lived there in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God.

It was equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that he who had made the promise would be faithful to it. Because of this, there came from one man, and one who was already as good as dead himself, more descendants than could be counted, as many as the stars of heaven or the grains of sand on the seashore.

All these died in faith, before receiving any of the things that had been promised, but they saw them in the far distance and welcomed them, recognising that they were only strangers and nomads on earth. People who use such terms about themselves make it quite plain that they are in search of their real homeland. They can hardly have meant the country they came from, since they had the opportunity to go back to it; but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since he has founded the city for them.

It was by faith that Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He offered to sacrifice his only son even though the promises had been made to him and he had been told: It is through Isaac that your name will be carried on. He was confident that God had the power even to raise the dead; and so, figuratively speaking, he was given back Isaac from the dead.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel! He has visited his people and redeemed them.

He has raised up for us a mighty saviour
  in the house of David his servant,
as he promised by the lips of holy men,
 those who were his prophets from of old.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel! He has visited his people and redeemed them.

A saviour who would free us from our foes,
  from the hands of all who hate us.
So his love for our fathers is fulfilled
  and his holy covenant remembered.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel! He has visited his people and redeemed them.

He swore to Abraham our father
  to grant us that free from fear,
  and saved from the hands of our foes,
we might serve him in holiness and justice
  all the days of our life in his presence.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel! He has visited his people and redeemed them.

Alleluia, alleluia!
Instruct me, Lord, in your way;
on an even path lead me.
Alleluia!