Thursday 18 July 2024

Today is Thursday 18 July, in the 15th week of Ordinary Time. The University of Johannesburg Choir sing a setting of Psalm 42: As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. Today’s reading is from the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 26:7-9,12,16-19 The way of the righteous is level; O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous. In the path of your judgements, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and your renown are the soul’s desire. My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us. O Lord, in distress they sought you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them. Like a woman with child, who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near her time, so were we because of you, O Lord; we were with child, we writhed, but we gave birth only to wind. We have won no victories on earth, and no one is born to inhabit the world. Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a radiant dew, and the earth will give birth to those long dead. Among several themes, this passage from the prophet Isaiah speaks of longing and desire for God: 'My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.' Does this phrase resonate with you? Would you say that these words are sometimes your own? We often desire many things, and our desires can sometimes seem to pull us in different directions. Prayer can be a time to bring one's desires, whatever they may be, into the open: to look at them in the light of God's presence. You can take a moment to do this now. Scripture presents us with words and images which we can often struggle to grasp or fully understand, yet which nevertheless resonate with us and speak to us deeply. As you listen to the passage again, is there a phrase or word which touches you, a phrase which you feel invited to hold onto for the rest of the day? As this time of prayer draws to a close, you might like to speak with God about your own levels of desire… what would you like to ask God for, or perhaps thank God for at this time? Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.