God Leads Us in Love into the Desert

Today’s first reading is from Hosea – a favorite reading of mine from chapter 2.

Thus says the LORD: I will allure her;
I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.
She shall respond there as in the days of her youth,
when she came up from the land of Egypt.

On that day, says the LORD,
She shall call me “My husband,”
and never again “My baal.”

I will espouse you to me forever:
I will espouse you in right and in justice,
in love and in mercy;
I will espouse you in fidelity,
and you shall know the LORD.