Sophia in the Desert

The Book of Wisdom recounts:

"Wisdom delivered a holy and blameless people from a nation which oppressed them. She entered into the soul of a servant of God, and stood against terrible kings in wonders and in signs. She rendered to the just the wages of their labors. She guided them along a marvellous way and became a sheltering cloud for them by day and a starry flame through the night. She brought them over the Red Sea and led them across a great water but their enemies she overwhelmed and churned them up from the bottom of the deep that the righteous might despoil the ungodly. And they sang hymns of praise to your holy name, O, I Am, and they praised, all together, your hand which fought for them. For, Wisdom opened the mouth of the dumb and made the tongues of infants to speak clearly."

This same Wisdom, who guided the children of Israel, asks us to follow her into the desert: into the land of the saraph and manna, yea, into the land of the water and rock.

As cloud and as fire she walks on ahead of us, guiding us safely through water, to life. She bids us to follow her bravely with confidence, taking her hand as she leads us to home.