Numbers 33: Stages on the Journey
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
We have a clear map of this passage from slavery to freedom, from dependence to independence, from darkness to light, from sorrow to promise. We might take time to reflect today on our own journey of faith and the many stages we have traversed. There have been many crossings, fearsome turnings, alarming hazards, and disturbing encounters. But there have also been beautiful awakenings, sustaining way stations, welcoming bridges, and warm pillars of fire in the night. Each of us has a record of our crossing out of confinement into freedom – and it is likely true that each of us has been exhausted at various places along the way. At each of these obstacles we will have heard God’s voice or received God’s word in various ways. It is absolutely true that we all have received the Word itself, Christ. And we have received him without an intercessor. We have only to open ourselves to his presence.
God is our constant strength, Jesus is our constant shepherd, the Spirit is our constant love as we move from darkness to light, from sorrow to promise through the stages of our journey.
Isaiah 40:11: Like a shepherd [God] feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.
From one of today’s MAGNIFICAT Mini-Reflections: Jesus is both the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd. He has walked the path of life before us and is one of us in his humanity. Let us put complete trust in him and confidently follow him wherever he leads us. Amen.
A re-post from October 31, 2011.
Image from: https://dantisamor.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/painting-the-flock-pre-raphaelite-livestock/
Cameron, Peter John. “Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 15.1 (2011). Print.
Also see the Journeys of Transformation page on this blog.
The Noontimes 