Isaiah 65:17 - 25

Thus says the Lord. Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice in that which I will create...No more shall be heard the sound of weeping or the cry of distress. No more will there be an infant that lives but a few days or an old man who does not fill out his days. There will be houses for all to inhabit with vineyards and fruit to eat. You will not labor in vain, nor bear children into calamity. The lion and the lamb shall feed together, and the wolf shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. No longer will there be hurt or destruction in all my holy mountain. Thus says the lord.

An excerpt from The Cure at Troy

By Seamus Heaney

Human beings suffer,
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

The innocent in gaols
Beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
Stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
Faints at the funeral home.

History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

Readings of January 15, 2006