Photon Farms: The Mystic Lamb

I'd never even heard of the Ghent Altar Piece until I was in my 50s. This Visio Divina card gives you a tiny portion of that great work of art by Jan Van Eyck which was installed in St. Bavo's Cathedral around 1430 in Ghent, Belgium. Learn more about the entire work by clicking here.

This image is only a tiny fraction of a much larger
work of art by the Van Eyck brothers.

This portion of the altar piece still takes my breath away.

I must admit, the first time I saw the full version of the image it took my breath away. I was new to the faith at the time and the implications of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist was still mind blowing to me. It is no less amazing now. The very idea that God gives himself to us as food and that we are encouraged to consume him daily if we can... well, I still struggle for words to express my gratitude and wonder.

I stand in awe in front of a reproduction of this image in my prayer room most every morning and kiss it and recite the Agnus Dei. The humility of God who graciously gives himself to us to eat and drink at every Divine Liturgy or Mass is beyond my limited comprehension.

I'd been looking for a way to make this image into a Visio Divina Card and couldn't come up with anything adequate to put on the back, until...

I discovered a version of the song many of us know as "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" by Aly Aleigha.

I don't believe in coincidences. This was meant to be.

Powerful. Mystical. Appropriately full of awe and wonder. All of these are good ways to describe the words to to this ancient hymn and this modern recording.

The melody is called 'Picardy' and is a traditional French tune.

The words are excerpted from the Liturgy of St. James. The version you see on the card above and the video below were translated and paraphrased by Gerard Moultrie.

Some combinations of visual art and music just move me too much to be able to adequately express it in words. I'll let it go at that. If it blesses even one of you, it is worth sharing.

Here is the entire work you would see if you went to Ghent's St. Bavo Cathedral. It is a very high resolution image... click the image below to zoom in. Alternately, you can take a deep dive by clicking here.