From today’s Old Testament reading, from Isaiah: ‘And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go forth to meet Ahaz, you and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, and say to him, Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smouldering stumps of firebrands …’”

‘Take heed, be quiet, do not fear …’ These are words which help us in the challenges of our own time. As the Psalmist said, ‘Be still, and know that I am God’. As St John Henry Newman said, ‘He knows what He is about’. May we trust the message of these words, and may we experience in a real way their strength and comfort. May He bless you this day.