Thursday after Sunday Advent 1 Isaiah 6:1-10
It is Advent and I am reading the old Roman Breviary. This book stems from the Middle- Ages and is filled with bible-texts and prayers for each day of the year. During Advent the bible texts are from Isaiah, a prophet. His texts are full of his wonderful and sometimes disturbing wrathful visions. Between the verses of the bible texts there are prayerful texts, written by the authors of the Breviary, called ‘responses’. Bible texts and prayers respond at each other. Right now, during Advent, these responses are about the coming of the Messiah and his miraculous birth.
Today I have read Isaiah 6:1-10. It tells about the majestic vision of Isaiah of God whom he sees sitting on a throne, his train filling the temple, surrounded by seraphim (angels). In this passage Isaiah is called to be a prophet. After seeing God Isaiah could not speak anymore. One of the seraphim holds a burning coal to his lips to let him speak again. God tells Isaiah what to say to the people of Israel: “‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ Make the heart of this people fat; make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.” Isaiah must tell the people of Israel, that they hear but do not understand, see but do not perceive and do not understand with their hearts.
I wondered, what does it mean to really see with our ears and to hear with our ears and to understand with our hearts? With this question I have pulled a card from the Tarot of a Moon Garden and I have received Ten of Cups.
Butterflies are dancing all over this card. They fly from the earth to the moon and back, connecting heaven and earth. Ten cups are standing in the forefront, filled or waiting to be filled with sweet nectar. At the back is a fairy-castle, lit by the moon. It is called a card of abundance and happiness. Everything seems connected and is communicating on this card.
Really hearing, seeing and understanding means opening up, and reaching out. But well, if these butterflies do not look out they will get entangled into each other. I do not like this card, I am getting real tired of all these butterflies flying around, of all this communication and openness. And who is it that will fill all these cups on the forefront with nectar? Probably me. I keep my eyes shut for a while, and my ears deaf, and my heart, well that stays safely inside.
Painting: stained-glass window from a church in window, themed the calling of Isaiah.
Today I have read Isaiah 6:1-10. It tells about the majestic vision of Isaiah of God whom he sees sitting on a throne, his train filling the temple, surrounded by seraphim (angels). In this passage Isaiah is called to be a prophet. After seeing God Isaiah could not speak anymore. One of the seraphim holds a burning coal to his lips to let him speak again. God tells Isaiah what to say to the people of Israel: “‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ Make the heart of this people fat; make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.” Isaiah must tell the people of Israel, that they hear but do not understand, see but do not perceive and do not understand with their hearts.
I wondered, what does it mean to really see with our ears and to hear with our ears and to understand with our hearts? With this question I have pulled a card from the Tarot of a Moon Garden and I have received Ten of Cups.
Butterflies are dancing all over this card. They fly from the earth to the moon and back, connecting heaven and earth. Ten cups are standing in the forefront, filled or waiting to be filled with sweet nectar. At the back is a fairy-castle, lit by the moon. It is called a card of abundance and happiness. Everything seems connected and is communicating on this card.
Really hearing, seeing and understanding means opening up, and reaching out. But well, if these butterflies do not look out they will get entangled into each other. I do not like this card, I am getting real tired of all these butterflies flying around, of all this communication and openness. And who is it that will fill all these cups on the forefront with nectar? Probably me. I keep my eyes shut for a while, and my ears deaf, and my heart, well that stays safely inside.
Painting: stained-glass window from a church in window, themed the calling of Isaiah.