Memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin
Isaiah 26 celebrates God’s defense of Jerusalem and his defeat of Judah’s enemies. The people of Judah would prayerfully sing these verses as they walked toward the Temple (see Psalm 24). The singers call God “O Just One” (v. 7). They recognize that God and God alone established peace in their realm.
The song oscillates from Judah’s declarations of God’s faithfulness to his ability to obliterate or “consume” those who fail to act justly or acknowledge his majesty. Judah also recalls its unfaithfulness to the LORD and the chastisement that followed (v. 16-18). God’s discipline, as the Old Testament Prophets express, is always a prompt to repentance and conversion of the heart.
Ultimately, Judah celebrates how the LORD brings justice and peace and promises eternal life (v. 19).
As a prayerful exercise with Isaiah 26, imagine that you are ascending along a pathway toward the Temple. There are dozens of people walking with you singing the same words. Your voices mingle and you sense a strong, familiar connection. Everyone’s feet kicks up a bit of sand and dust. The sky is a perfect blue without clouds. Hills dotted with shrubs and olive trees surround you. As you make your way up to the Temple, you sing or pray the following:
The way of the righteous is level; O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous.
O LORD, as I continue to walk this path, I place my footsteps into your care.
In the path of your judgments, O LORD, we wait for you; your name and your renown are the soul’s desire.
May you always see your name inscribed on my soul –at the center of my being. I whisper: You are my God and I am yours.
My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
When sleep eludes me, I think of you as Shepherd, Healer, the One who offers me true rest.
For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. O LORD, you will ordain peace for us, for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.
O LORD, it is not a nation’s power or the size of its armies that bring peace. Good overcomes evil by your hand.