A reading from the prophecy of Isaiah

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.  Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  And one called to another and said:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory.

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.  And I said: "Woe is me!  For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"

Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  And he touched my mouth, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven."  And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"  Then I said, "Here am I!  Send me."  And he said, "Go, and say to this people:

'Hear and hear, but do not understand;

see and see, but do not perceive.'

Make the heart of this people fat,

and their ears heavy,

and shut their eyes;

lest they see with their eyes,

and hear with their ears,

and understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed."

Then I said, "How long, O Lord?"  And he said:

Until cities lie waste

without inhabitant,

and houses without men,

and the land is utterly desolate,

and the Lord removes men far away,

and the forsaken places are many

in the midst of the land.

And though a tenth remain in it,

it will be burned again,

like a terebinth or an oak,

whose stump remains standing

when it is felled.

The holy seed is its stump.

--Isaiah 6:1-13 (RSV)