Tag: bride and groom

Baruch 2: The Road to Destruction or Redemption – Part II
Baruch 2: The Road to Destruction or Redemption – Part II

Thursday, November 24, 2022

In Isaiah 24 we read about the devastation of all but the faithful remnant. In Nehemiah 2 we see a heart wrenching return to the destroyed Jerusalem. In Revelation 18 we witness the fall of Babylon at her own hands and the destruction of those who followed the unholy trinity of beast, harlot and false prophet and their attendant demon spirits. With the forces of darkness there is always a final end. With the forces of light there is always ultimate and infinite jubilation.

Baruch reminds us that there are many ways to visit Babylon and drink of her waters poisoned with the blood of the innocent. Baruch also reminds us that the door to the New Jerusalem is standing open to us. There will be a new heaven and a new earth as a counterpoint to the closed, dark, silent void.

God knows that he has created a stiff-necked people; but he has also invited us to convert this stubbornness to an intentional devotion to Christ. In so doing we decide to walk from darkness to light where we will recall the words of the Lord to us: I will bring them back to the land which with my oath I promised to their fathers . . . and they shall rule it. I will make them increase; they shall not diminish. And I will establish for them an eternal covenant, that I will be their God and they shall be my people; and I will not again remove my people Israel from the land I give them.

Jesus came into the world to release us from darkness and destruction. Permanently and eternally. Do we choose to reject this covenant offer of love? Or do we, the chosen bride, decide to follow the groom where he leads us? As we rise each day, the decision lies before us. Perdition or redemption, destruction or salvation. The clear choice lies before us and it is time for us to act. So let us invite others to join us in combating dense and heavy darkness with the light and truth of Christ.

Adapted from a favorite from November 8, 2008.

Images from: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/algo/71139361/ and https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/flagler-county-road-crumbles-into-atlantic-ocean-due-to-tropical-storm-nicole-waves
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November 24, 2022

Babylon, bride and groom, Nehemiah 2, Revelation 18, stiff necks and hard hearts
Joy and Union: John
Saturday, January 22, 2022

Joy and Union

John

We are invited into a disciple’s intimacy with Christ. Jesus offers friendship that is personal, immediate and joyful. Today we remember that Christ is the groom and that we are his bride. And we consider how God’s incredible love calls and binds us together.

John the Baptizer recognizes that his joy increases when he finds union with others in and through Christ.

The Bride and Groom – John 3:25-30: There arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.” John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.

Jesus tells us that the union we seek with him – the union we already have if we might recognize it – is the sole source of lasting and satisfying joy.

The Vine and the Branches – John 15:11: These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Jesus reminds us that his joy is complete in us and that as we turn over the cares of the world to him our joy will increase. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches; he sustains and we celebrate and bear fruit. Our pruning strengthens us and brings us closer to God. Our fidelity and persistence bring us the reward of God’s genuine and enduring joy.

This is the Good News John brings us. Today we might consider how we will share this joy with others.

Click on the image of the bride above to learn more about women in ancient times, or visit: http://www.womeninthebible.net/3.2.Major_Events.htm

Other images from: https://jesuskinginexile.wordpress.com/page/4/ and http://rgonce.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-vine-and-branches.html

If this week’s Noontimes call you to search for more ways to encounter Joy or urges you to investigate the New Testament, click on the word Joy in the categories cloud in the blog’s right hand sidebar and choose a reflection, or enter those words in the blog search bar.
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January 22, 2022

bride and groom, fidelity, John 15:11, John 3:25-30, joy, persistence, the vine and branches
Song of Songs 8: The Lover
Song of Songs 8: The Lover

Saturday, January 26, 2019

Written on January 31, 2009 and posted today as a Favorite . . .

“The Song of Songs, meaning the greatest of songs, contains in exquisite poetic form the sublime portrayal and praise of the mutual love of the Lord and his people. The Lord is the Lover and his people are the beloved. Describing this relationship in terms of human love, the author simply follows Israel’s tradition. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel all characterize the covenant between the Lord and Israel as a marriage. Hosea the prophet sees the idolatry of Israel in the adultery of Gomer. He also represents the Lord speaking to Israel’s heart and changing her into a new spiritual people, purified by the Babylonian captivity and betrothed anew to her divine Lover ‘in justice and uprightness, in love and mercy’.” (Senior 791)

For stern as death is love, relentless as the nether world is devotion; its flames a blazing fire. Deep waters cannot quench love, nor floods sweep it away. Were one to offer all he owns to purchase love, he would be roundly mocked. 8:6-7

“In human experience, death and the nether world are inevitable, unrelenting; in the end they always triumph. Love, which is just as certain of its victory, matches its strength against the natural enemies of life; waters cannot extinguish it nor floods carry it away. It is more priceless than all riches”. (Senior 798)

In Song of Songs 2:14, the lover asks for a word or a song: Oh my dove in the clefts of the rock . . . let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your song is sweet and you are lovely. She replies in words similar to those found in 2:17: Until the day breathes cool and the shadows lengthen, roam, my lover, like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains. (Senior 798)

When God the Lover calls us, will we recognize his voice? Will we understand that the Lover cries out to us, asking us to join him in his work of conversion and transformation . . . wishing to give us the gifts of his richness?

O garden-dweller, my friends are listening for your voice, let me hear it! Be swift, my lover, like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices! 8:13-14

When we hear the Lover’s voice, will we be prepared to follow? To lose such a love is a loss from which we will not recover; therefore, do not arouse, do not stir up love, before its own time. 8:4

We prepare best for this deeply intimate love by living a life in which we witness, watch and wait.

Oh my dove in the clefts of the rock . . . let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your song is sweet and you are lovely.

By patience and by listening we enter into Wisdom. By obedience and by witnessing we respond to the Lover with his own words.

Until the day breathes cool and the shadows lengthen, roam, my lover, like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains . . . for we do not wish to stir up love before its own time . . . we wish to prepare as best we can . . . for in this Lover there is someone far more powerful yet tender than anyone we have ever known.

So as we act in justice and walk in humility, let us witness to the truths we know to be true.

As we give thanks for the bounty we have received, let us watch for the signs of the Bridegroom who comes leaping over the hills to us, his beloved.

Let us wait in joyful anticipation the love we are destined to live.

Let us join in the reaping of our Lover’s harvest . . . even as we walk through the fire of his love. Amen.

A re-post from January 19, 2012.

Image from: http://www.webexhibits.org/poetry/explore_famous_free_background.html

Senior, Donald, ed. THE CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE. New York, Oxford University Press, 1990.79 & 798. Print.

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January 26, 2019

bride and groom, intimacy, love
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato: Virgin Mary
Isaiah 61:10 – I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul; for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem, like a bride bedecked with her jewels.

Today as we celebrate the taking up of Christ’s mother into heaven we might pause to remember that she understood the importance of God’s sowing; she is the vehicle of his arrival among us. Mary brought a babe into the world whom she knew would redeem all. She kept watch at the foot of her child’s cross, and she witnessed to his great sacrifice. Mary celebrates, with Christ, the gift of God’s goodness and the gift of her child’s sacrifice to humanity.

God says: It is true that I love each of you as I love the Mother of Christ. It is true that I long to bring all of you to me. It is true that I hope to unite all of you with me in the Spirit. You are my bride. Come . . . take your grooms’ hand so that together we might reap the harvest. All that is not good I will turn to goodness in my love for you.

Mary understands how God harvests; and she stands ready to accompany us in our journey.

For thoughts on the Blessed Mother, click on the image above or go to: http://humblepiety.blogspot.com/2011/08/sermon-notes-assumption-of-blessed.html

For more on the customs and habits that surround this feast day, visit: http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/common/assumption

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August 15, 2012

Blessed Virgin Mary, bride and groom, harvest