{"id":259,"date":"2012-12-10T01:00:54","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T01:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=259"},"modified":"2012-12-03T18:50:21","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T18:50:21","slug":"advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html","title":{"rendered":"Advent 2012: Are You in a Drought?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Image courtesy of Arvind Balaraman\/FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Advent Day 9: Are you in a drought?<\/p>\n

The readings for today’s mass in the Roman Catholic liturgy begin with a wonderful, action-packed reading from Isaiah, Isaiah 35:1-10. It says, in part:<\/p>\n

The desert and the parched land will exult;<\/p>\n

the steppe will rejoice and bloom….<\/p>\n

Streams will burst forth in the desert,<\/p>\n

and rivers in the steppe.<\/p>\n

The burning sands will become pools,<\/p>\n

\u00a0and the thirsty ground, springs of water;<\/p>\n

For those who might feel as\u00a0 if they are living in a drought – a dry, parched, withered period in life when the spirit feels cracked and brittle –\u00a0this reading \u00a0brings much hope. For, even if now is a difficult period, there will be a flood of goodness and life as God’s promise to all is fulfilled.<\/p>\n

Waiting can be tiresome, even oppressive. But if we remain firm in prayer and faith, we can be sure that whatever drought we are experiencing will be swept away by a tide of God’s love. And, oh, how we will rejoice and bloom anew!<\/p>\n

Blessings for the day,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Advent Day 9: Are you in a drought? The readings for today’s mass in the Roman Catholic liturgy begin with a wonderful, action-packed reading from Isaiah, Isaiah 35:1-10. It says, in part: The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom…. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[224,43,83],"tags":[225,232,259,137,133,56,30,23,226],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent-2012","category-encouragement-in-life","category-scripture-and-us","tag-advent","tag-advent-meditation","tag-drought","tag-flood","tag-gods-promise","tag-love","tag-pain","tag-spirit","tag-waiting"],"yoast_head":"\nAdvent 2012: Are You in a Drought? - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advent 2012: Are You in a Drought? - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Advent Day 9: Are you in a drought? The readings for today’s mass in the Roman Catholic liturgy begin with a wonderful, action-packed reading from Isaiah, Isaiah 35:1-10. It says, in part: The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom…. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-10T01:00:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-03T18:50:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2012\/12\/two-candles-by-Arvind-Balaraman-218x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Advent 2012: Are You in a Drought? - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Advent 2012: Are You in a Drought? - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","og_description":"Advent Day 9: Are you in a drought? The readings for today’s mass in the Roman Catholic liturgy begin with a wonderful, action-packed reading from Isaiah, Isaiah 35:1-10. It says, in part: The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom…. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html","og_site_name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","article_published_time":"2012-12-10T01:00:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-12-03T18:50:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2012\/12\/two-candles-by-Arvind-Balaraman-218x300.jpg"}],"author":"mpratt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html","name":"Advent 2012: Are You in a Drought? - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2012\/12\/two-candles-by-Arvind-Balaraman-218x300.jpg","datePublished":"2012-12-10T01:00:54+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-03T18:50:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2012\/12\/two-candles-by-Arvind-Balaraman-218x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2012\/12\/two-candles-by-Arvind-Balaraman-218x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2012\/12\/advent-2012-are-you-in-a-drought.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Advent 2012: Are You in a Drought?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/","name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32","name":"mpratt","description":"Several years ago, Maureen Pratt earned her Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts\/Playwriting from UCLA's School of Theater, FIlm and Television. She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}