A reading from the Prophet Isaiah 26:7-9, 12. 16-19

At night my soul longs for you
and my spirit in me seeks for you...
Lord, you are giving us peace,
since you treat us
as our deeds deserve.


Distressed, we search for you, Lord;
...As a woman with child near her time
writhes and cries out in her pangs,
so are we, O Lord, in your presence:
we have conceived, we writhe
as if we were giving birth;
we have not given the spirit of salvation to the earth,
no more than the inhabitants of the world are born.

Your dead will come to life,
their corpses will rise;
awake, exult,
all you who lie in the dust,
for your dew is a radiant dew
and the land of ghosts will give birth.
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Today's first reading at Mass reflects much about what i have been experiencing within and what has yet to be. Isaiah roots for the spiritual meaning found amid anguish, of waiting and hoping. Expectant, like a woman about to bring forth life from her very womb. What are 'the land of ghosts' we hold within us, landscapes of the heart that have yet to see and experience life in its fullness? Do I trust God enough to offer these hours or even years of waiting to him?

Statue of St Catherine of Siena (1347-1380): christian mystic and saint
on the grounds of St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. Online resources on her works: www.newadvent.org/cathen/03447a.htm