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| Image by Vanessa Sabino |
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A GREETING
My mouth shall speak wisdom;
the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
(Psalm 49:3)
A READING
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is God who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
and spreads them like a tent to live in.
(Isaih 40:21-22)
MUSIC
This selection has been cued up to start with a bell and an extended drone.
Singing begins at the 6 minute mark.
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
God has described a circle on the face of the waters,
at the boundary between light and darkness.
(Job 26:10)
A REFLECTION
All living creatures are, so to speak,
sparks from the radiation of God's brilliance,
and these sparks emerge from God like the rays of the sun.
- found in Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen
by Matthew Fox
VERSE OF THE DAY
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your steadfast love.
(Psalm 31:16)
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| "The True Trinity in the True Unity," original mandala art by Hildegard of Bingen |
Today’s musical selection begins with the ‘drone’ mentioned on Day 1, the single tone that is played by an instrument and held in this case by human voice. Singers move in clockwise and counter-clockwise movements to arrive at a circular pattern enclosing a single figure.
The dance could almost be a dramatization of a Hildegard mandala drawing. Circles were a preoccupation of Hildegard for whom they represented eternal life and the continuous unfolding of God’s creativity. To illustrate her first book of writings, Scivias, Hildegard designed and oversaw the making of a series of mandalas that visually represented her understanding of the cosmos. In the image above, “the Trinity in the Unity,” the inner circles represent God (always associated with the light or the sun), the outer circles are the Holy Spirit and the figure of Jesus speaks for himself, standing within and unifying the circles that enclose him.
Hildegard’s fascination with circles expresses itself throughout Scivias (“Know the Ways”) where the spiritual journey is described as a continuous path we follow to take us wherever it leads. She lived in a time when labrynths began appearing in churches and cathedrals. The idea of submitting to God’s path without questioning where it might lead was already a centuries-old Celtic practice, exemplified in the ‘oarless voyages’ often undertaken by monks in Ireland and Scotland to find out where they are meant to be.
Our natural world is filled with circles, from the construction of a spider’s web to the natural fissure of an Icelandic geyser to the orb that is the sun. Circles make community: when we gather in a circle, no one is hidden and no one has their back to another. Often we have our eyes focused on only what is directly ahead of us. How can the circles of the natural world encourage us always to be looking outward to the next person, and beyond them to all created life?
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Scripture passages are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.
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LC† Radiant Earth, Sacred Calling is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!
