Wednesday 5 August

Today is Wednesday the 5 August in the 18th week of Ordinary Time.

O spring in the desert, O shelter from the heat. How are you feeling as you begin this prayer today?  Do you feel like you’re in a dry, barren desert, or on lush, green, fertile, life-giving ground?  Or perhaps somewhere in between the two?  Come into the presence of God now, and enjoy that presence, the presence of your loving creator, the source of all life.  

Jeremiah 31:1-7

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 far away.
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 take your tambourines,
   and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
Again you shall plant vineyards
   on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters shall plant,
   and shall enjoy the fruit.
For there shall be a day when sentinels will call
   in the hill country of Ephraim:
‘Come, 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,
   ‘Save, O Lord, your people,
   the remnant of Israel.’  

Israel experiences cycles of exile and return; of going out into the wilderness and homecoming.  How does this reflect the pattern of your life?

What kind of season are you in now?

Wherever you are, desert or garden or wherever, what does God want for you?

As you listen again, what moves you in this passage? 

Noticing what moves you in this passage, what might God be saying to you?  

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.