Whenever I hear the opening words of yesterday's first reading (Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11), I am immediately transported back to my perpetual profession in June 2003, and the months leading to it. One of the consequences of our international group preparation for perpetual vows is spending almost five months singing each other's songs, with the group's favourites becoming part of our multi-lingual profession Mass. And so it was that our psalm was a Spanish hymn, Consolad a mi pueblo, with lyrics based on the calls within Isaiah 40. In English, the first verse and chorus would be...
Console my people,
says the Lord.
Speak to the heart of humanity;
Cry out
that my love has overcome;
Prepare the way,
because your Redeemer comes
I have chosen you to love;
I give you my strength and light to guide.
I am consolation in your gaze.
Glory to God
There is so much in these lines that our bruised and hurting world needs right now! Consolation... and people who can console... Love... and people who know that they have been chosen for love, and are sent to love... Voices which can speak to our individual and collective hearts... People who, throughout their lives, reveal and reflect the glory of God, which is entirely Love.
The calls of Consolad - to console, and to love, with both tenderness and strength - are accompanying me into this second week of Advent. How can they accompany you, too?
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