Our gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Advent is Luke 3:1-6, John the Baptist crying in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the Lord." This painting is from the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck, which is one of the most complex and fascinating works of art in the world. Here, John is sitting on the left hand of Christ. He has on his heavenly robe, but his hair is still wild and bristling, he points to the Lamb of God, and he is wearing his camel hair clothing underneath the robe. I wish I knew what scripture that Bible is open to. I have looked at it very close up on a website where you can really enlarge the pictures, but I still can't tell.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I'm going to keep it brief today because we are really busy. Instead of posting a video of a song, I'm going to link to a post that I did about six years ago with a list of the songs I recorded on a CD that I listen to during Advent. You can see it here
There are two versions of On Jordan's Bank on the list. We almost always sing this at Mass on the second Sunday of Advent.
And here is a reflection by a friend of mine on the second Sunday of Advent which features this song, and happened to appear on Facebook at just the right moment.
AMDG
Wow. What a painting.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are busy doing fun and festive things!
Every year the C. S. Lewis Society to which I belong has a gathering for Advent. Tonight is it! My nice husband made chocolate chip cookies to take.
DeleteOh, by the way, I keep meaning to mention that I think the idea of ice cream for a meal is a very good one.
AMDG
The C.S. Lewis Society?? Wow to that. (By the way, we are reading The Great Divorce right now in the high school class I help teach at church.)
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed many meals of ice cream only.
I don't think I have seen that painting before of John the Baptist. I really like that depiction of him. He looks rugged but somehow serene, which he would have to have been, to exercise the authority he did.
Yes, we have been meeting for 22 years. It's a great group of people.
ReplyDeleteWhen you get a minute, you should look at that website about the altarpiece. You could look at it forever and not see everything. I wrote about part of it somewhere on here.
AMDG
It's here: https://thethreeprayers.blogspot.com/2012/03/fiat_26.html
DeleteThis is only about a third of the outside of the altarpiece when it is closed, and then it opens up, and is full of everthing. ;-) The top rank, from which John the Baptist comes, is arranged like the deisis of an iconostasis.
AMDG