Spiritual Quote of the Day (Book of Isaiah, on the Mountain Where God Will Destroy ‘The Shroud That Enfolds All Peoples’)

“On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
    a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
    the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
    the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
      he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
    from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
    from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
In that day they will say,
 
‘Surely this is our God;
    we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
    let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.’”—Isaiah 25: 6-9 (New International Version)

(This detail of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel shows the prophet Isaiah.)
 

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Book of Isaiah, With God Strengthening ‘Those With Fearful Hearts’)

“Strengthen the feeble hands,
    steady the knees that give way;
say to those with fearful hearts,
    ‘Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
    he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
    he will come to save you.’
 
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
    and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
    and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
    the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
    grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.”—Isaiah 35: 3-7 (New International Version)
 
(This detail of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel shows the prophet Isaiah.)

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Book of Isaiah, on God As ‘My Strength and My Song’)

“ ‘Behold, God is my salvation;
    I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
    and he has become my salvation.’
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” —Isaiah 12:2-3 (Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition)

(The image accompanying this post is the detail of the prophet Isaiah from Michelangelo’s ceiling for the Sistine Chapel.)

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Book of Jeremiah, on God’s ‘Plans to Give You Hope and a Future’)

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”— Jeremiah 29:11 (New International Version) 

The image accompanying this post is of the prophet Jeremiah as a portion of the Sistine Chapel, painted 1508-1512 by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo (1475-1564).

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Book of Isaiah, on a Soul That ‘Rejoices in My God’)

“I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the soil makes the sprout come up
    and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
    and praise spring up before all nations.”— Isaiah 61:10-11 (New International Version)

(The image accompanying this post is Michelangelo’s depiction of the prophet in the Sistine Chapel.)

Quote of the Day (Book of Isaiah, on God’s Servant, Bringing ‘Justice to the Nations’)

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,

    my chosen one in whom I delight;

I will put my Spirit on him,

    and he will bring justice to the nations.

 He will not shout or cry out,

    or raise his voice in the streets.

 A bruised reed he will not break,

    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

     he will not falter or be discouraged

till he establishes justice on earth.

    In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”—Isaiah 42: 1-4 ((New International Version)

(This detail of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel shows the prophet Isaiah.)

Quote of the Day (Book of Jeremiah, on the Prophet’s Ordeal in the Cistern)

“Then the princes said to the king, ‘This man ought to be put to death. He is weakening the resolve of the soldiers left in this city and of all the people, by saying such things to them; he is not seeking the welfare of our people, but their ruin.’ King Zedekiah answered: ‘He is in your hands,’ for the king could do nothing with them. And so they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Prince Malchiah, in the court of the guard, letting him down by rope. There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

“Now Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian, a court official in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the cistern. The king happened to be sitting at the Gate of Benjamin, and Ebed-melech went there from the house of the king and said to him, ‘My lord king, these men have done wrong in all their treatment of Jeremiah the prophet, throwing him into the cistern. He will starve to death on the spot, for there is no more bread in the city.’ Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Ethiopian: ‘Take three men with you, and get Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.’” —Jeremiah 38-4:10

The prophet Jeremiah had some of the most harrowing experiences of anyone asked by God to carry out a mission. (No wonder he looks so depressed, in the attached image—the famous close-up painting of him in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo.) But this episode strikes me as particularly horrifying. The image of him mired in mud is a powerful symbol of the hatred of those who reject the call to stick to the path of truth. 

Salvation comes by way of an alien--an immigrant--someone who could not benefit from helping Jeremiah (and, indeed, could be at extreme risk for doing so). But, in his way, he has absorbed the life lesson of the prophet: At all costs, say and do the wrong thing.

Quote of the Day (Book of Joel, on Being ‘Converted to Me With All Your Heart’)

“Now therefore saith the Lord: Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of the evil.  Who knoweth but he will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him, sacrifice and libation to the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather together the people, sanctify the church, assemble the ancients, gather together the little ones, and them that suck at the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth from his bed, and the bride out of her bride chamber. Between the porch and the altar the priests the Lord's ministers shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people: and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God? The Lord hath been zealous for his land, and hath spared his people.”—Joel 2: 12-18 (Douay-Rheims Bible)

Ash Wednesday should be not so much a renunciation but, as the Old Testament prophet Joel indicates, a “turn to” God.

(The graphic accompanying this post shows the prophet Joel as imagined by Michelangelo, in a fresco on the Sistine Chapel  Ceiling, 1508-1512)

Quote of the Day (Book of Isaiah, on a ‘Victory for Justice’)

“I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I   

   have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as 

   a covenant of the people, a light for the nations,

To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from 

   confinement, and from the dungeon, Those who live in  

   darkness.”—Isaiah 42: 6-7

(This detail of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel shows the prophet Isaiah.)