The Judean desert after a rain. Photo by Socorro Gonzalez
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35, KJV
When Mrs ERJ and I were married, we picked out three readings. One from the Old Testament. One from the New Testament "letters" and one from the four main Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
I cannot remember with certainty what the second two readings were but I remember with great clarity that the first one was from Isaiah 35.
I remember the parts about strengthening feeble knees and "...fearful heart, Be strong, fear not..."
Getting married is not an endeavor to be taken up casually. If you are not awed by what you are about to enter, then you aren't doing it right.
Isaiah 35 was one of the readings we had at Mass this morning.
This chapter is one that is worth reading from several different translations. They are all beautiful and they all have a slightly different perspective.
A voice of Hope when hope is hard to find. We need that. Thanks--ken
ReplyDelete"Getting married is not an endeavor to be taken up casually. If you are not awed by what you are about to enter, then you aren't doing it right."
ReplyDeleteAs someone who was married for 22+ years before getting divorced, I fully endorse this. In retrospect, I did not marry for the right reasons. That said, I would not change a thing, as I love my four kids more than anything else in the world. The marriage was not able to endure, for a variety of good reasons, but I believe there was good faith on both sides, and an enduring commitment to the children. It wasn't the ideal fairy-tale outcome, but it was good enough. A failure on one front does not mean a failure on others. Not all partnerships are meant to last a lifetime.
I count myself among the lucky ones.
DeleteMrs ERJ was every bit as sweet and loving after the wedding and as the kids came as she was before. That is not true for everybody.
Picking a mate is a crap-shoot.
The "...till death do us part..." was a lot easier to pull off when men died in our forties and fifties and forensic science was not as advanced.