Devotion to the Father: the messengers of love, Isaiah

THE MESSENGERS OF LOVE: ISAIAH

INTRODUCTION - - Isaiah is more than a prophet, he was called the evangelist of the Old Testament. He had a very rich human and religious personality. He foresaw and described the Messianic times with astonishing richness of detail and announced them with religious strength and ardor which aimed to sustain the hope of his people and to open their souls to faith and love in God. God loves, purifies and saves even when it chastises. The Messiah will make himself servant and propitiation and savior for us, in suffering.

But he will also reveal to us the traits of God's tenderness and sweetness for us: he will be Emmanuel, that is, God-with-us, he will be given to us as a child son who gladdens the house where he is born. It will be like a spring sprout sprouted on an old trunk, it will be the prince of peace: then the wolf will live with the lamb, the swords will be transformed into plowshares and the spears into sickles, one nation will no longer raise the sword against another. He will be the prince of clemency: he will not extinguish the wick that gives the last flashes of flame, he will not break the weak reed, on the contrary "he will destroy death forever; it will dry the tears of every face ».

But Isaiah also warned heartily: "If you don't believe, you won't survive." Only "whoever believes will not fall". "Put your trust in the Lord forever, because he is the eternal fortress."

BIBLICAL MEDITATION - In conversion and stillness is your salvation, in tranquility and trust is your strength. (…) The Lord waits for the time to show you mercy and therefore he rises to show you mercy, because the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are those who hope in him. Ps, people of Zion, do not weep; he will show you mercy, hearing the voice of your weeping; when he hears you he will have pity on you. (Isaiah 30, 15-20)

CONCLUSION - The whole message of Isaiah arouses great trust in God's love, but not only as an intimate religious sentiment, but also as a commitment to love of neighbor: "learn to do good, seek justice, help the oppressed , defend the justice of the orphan, protect the widow ». The corporal and spiritual works of mercy will also be the signs that will reveal the Messiah: enlighten the blind, straighten the lame, give hearing to the deaf, loosen the tongue of the dumb. The same works and a thousand others, not as miracles or extraordinary interventions, but as aid and fraternal service every day, must be performed by the Christian, according to his profession, out of love.

COMMUNITY PRAYER

INVITATION - Let us turn our prayers with confidence to God, our Father, who in every age has sent his prophets to call men to conversion and love. Let us pray together and say: By the Heart of Christ your Son, hear us, O Lord.

INTENTIONS - So that generous prophets may arise even today in the Church and in the world who know how to call to conversion and love and arouse active Christian hope, we pray: That the Church may be freed from false prophets, which with apparent zeal and doctrines of pride disturb the people of God and scandalize the world, let us pray: That each of us may be docile to the voice of that interior prophet who is given to us in our conscience, let us pray: That respect and obedience for the "prophets may grow in the Church and in the world. ordinary "constituted in authority by God in the Holy Hierarchy, in the Society and in the Family, let us pray. (Other personal intentions)

CONCLUSION PRAYER - Lord, our God, while we ask your forgiveness for having so often closed our ears and hearts to your voice that manifested itself in our conscience or through your "prophets", we ask you to form a new, more docile heart , more humble, more ready and generous, like the Heart of Jesus, your Son. Amen.