Today, on the last Sunday of Advent and for this year the last day of Advent the old Roman Breviary has a text by Isaiah with beautiful parts in it (Isa.35:1-7). It speaks of a desert that once will blossom as a rose. It speaks of the lame who shall walk and of the deaf who shall hear. It ( Read more... )

                                                                                         
                                    
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I am still reading the old Roman Breviary, I do this until Christmas. Today it is again one of the “quarter-temper days”, days of contemplation and repentance, just as last Wednesday. I thought there were just four of those days in a year, but apparently there are more of them in  one week in each ( Read more... )

This entry will be very brief, due to the activity of decorating the Christmas tree and going to the Christmas service organized by the school of my daughter. That was very lovely and moving, little children dressed as lambs, and the Christmas play was funny. But, to be honest, I had forgotten the service. Yesterday I went to her street-dance ( Read more... )

Today the main text in the Breviary, which I am reading during the days of Advent, is not from Isaiah, but by a Church Father called Ambrose. This is because today is a special day, a so called “Quarter-temper-day”. There are four of them in a year, once in a quarter. These are days of repentance or contemplation. In Holland there is a church in a ( Read more... )

Again a busy day, I still had some Christmas cards to write, I had to prepare for a Christmas workshop tomorrow. I had wanted to work on a lesson about The Magician, but I could not, social obligations prevented me doing that.

The text of the day in the Roman Breviary is a prophecy of a coming time that will be overflowing with riches for the ( Read more... )

On this day, on which my husband made an English plum pudding, on which I have written many Christmas cards, besides doing a reading and work on my lessons, on this very busy Advent day, I have read a prophecy of disaster by Isaiah, Isaiah 28:1-6, suggested for this day by the Roman Breviary, and pulled a card alongside it.

In this passage Isaiah ( Read more... )

This will be my last entry for a few days. I am off to Rotterdam with my daughter, who sings in the National Choir for Children. The choir has several concerts there with the Rotterdams’ Philharmonic Orchestra, singing Christmas themed film-music. We will be staying with my brother and later on with my mother, and it will all be very festive.

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The text for today, suggested by the old Roman Breviary, is Isaiah 14:3-6. This text speaks of the end of days, of the moment that Adonai will come and give us rest from sorrow, trouble and from the hard work we do. This is the day, Ishaiah says, that the oppressor will have lost his power. In his words: “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden ( Read more... )

Today the passage in the Breviary is a difficult one. It is a vision of Isaiah, a prophecy that God will destroy Babel, Isaiah 13:4-11. “Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it. For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. ( Read more... )