mystery of creation

Nibicula Est, Transibit

Detail of our Saviour’s Feet from mosaic in Chora

Come and lay
all heartache care and worry
at His Feet!

(And LEAVE them there!)

Greetings on the Eve of Holy Theophany!

A friend recently shared an ancient and amazing Latin quote attributed to St. Athanasius the Great. Nibicula est, transibit which translates to “It is a small cloud; it will pass”.

Trials and tribulations are just for now, Nibicula Est, Transibit – are exactly like those fleeting clouds on the horizon!

Christ is our Siloam. He is our Bright Sun of Righteousness in a cloudless sky.

Come! Let us kiss His Precious Feet – those very same Feet which once trod Eden’s dusky paths, and are still fragrant with the Petals of Paradise!

…When a problem is acute…tell it to the Angels so they may place it at the Lord’s Feet, and pray the Lord for an Angel of Peace to calm your soul. How beautiful is the Mystery of Tomorrow! ~St. Gavrilia

Wishing you a Blessed Theophany!

With love in Christ.

They Speak to Us

Hornby Island Field of Miniature Wildflowers – Yarrow, Larkspur, Mouse-Ear Chickweed

Take delight in all things that surround us. All things teach us and lead us to God. All things around us are droplets of the love of God – both things animate and inanimate, the plants and the animals, the birds and the mountains, the sea and the sunset and the starry sky. They are little loves through which we attain to the great Love that is Christ. Flowers, for example, have their own grace: they teach us with their fragrance and with their magnificence. They speak to us of the love of God. They scatter their fragrance and their beauty on sinners and on the righteous. ~ St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia

Nature is a Secret Gospel – and its healing, spiritual balm, blasts away any clutter or cobwebs in the mind. A restoring walk by the ocean, a river, the hills, the mountains, or in the breezy, spicy forests of birdsong, remind us of God’s Love.

It’s everywhere! It fills everything!

Even the tiniest of wildflowers exude the salvific, spiritual fragrance of God’s Ineffable Greatness…

And our soul’s heartfelt gratitude, draws us ever closer to Creation’s Planter!

With love in Christ.

Cloak of Humility

September 2024 on Cameron Lake, BC – Canada

Greetings on the Saturday after Holy Theophany!

…Wonderful is God in His works! Through all His works, He teaches us humility and obedience. He hides Himself behind His works, as the sun at night behind the shining of the stars, as a nightingale in the bush behind its song. He lends light to the sun, and the sun shines as though with its own light, while the fact that it is God’s light is ignored. He lends a voice to His thunder and His winds, and they are heard; but He is not heard. He lends beauty to His mountains and meadows, and they are resplendent in beauty as though it were their own, while God’s beauty remains shrouded in mystery. He lends beauty and fragrance to the flowers of the field, and the beauteous flowers give off their fragrance as though it were their own; while God’s fragrance goes un-noticed. He lends strength to every creature, and each creature preens itself in front of the others, showing off its strength as though it were its own; while God’s immeasurable strength neither preens itself nor cries for attention. He lends of His mind to men, and men cogitate and think as though with their own minds; while God’s mind stands in a calm from tumult, turning from the world’s praise. So God teaches us humility. All that He does, He does both in accordance with His own nature and for the sake of men, that man may be ashamed and aware of his foolish pride; that man may not be puffed up with himself, having of himself no good work; but that he should let his works go before him, and he walk behind them, as God does with His works, scarcely seen or heard, as a shepherd behind his large flock… ~ Homily Excerpt on Theophany by St. Nikolai Velimirovic

Of Brightness and Glory

Thank you for sharing this uplifting quote, Melania!

As God is infinitely the greatest being, so He is allowed (recognized) to be infinitely the most beautiful and excellent; and all the beauty to be found throughout the whole creation, is but the reflection of the diffused beams of that Being Who hath infinite fullness of brightness and glory. ~ Schemamonk Constantine Cavarnos; Spiritual Beauty (The Nature of Virtue – Jonathan Edwards, 1960)

Long ago, in the 7th century, St. Caedmon heard angels praising God about Creation, and the saint penned what he heard. His poem is the oldest English poem in existence. As the original Northumbrian and Latin translations were aching to be adapted into a simpler, English read…. Here is my own translation and recording of St. Caedmon’s Creation Hymn of Praise.

Wishing my Blisswood Visitors Autumnal Joy!

And… may the sight of a crisp leaf dancing upon frosty winds, the refrains of gladsome birdsong, and the heartfelt perception of silent, celestial songs which dot the blue veil of night as a starry manuscript, inspire us to ponder each day or night, some aspect of Creation’s divine, and dazzling beauty.

Come! let us magnify our Holy, Blessed, Timeless Lord, and Father of Infinite Brightness and Glory!

Perceiving Divine Simplicity

Boulevard Snowdrop Flowers Signal the Nascence of Spring

Love all creation, the whole of it and every grain of sand within it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. ~ Staretz Zosima; The Brothers Karamazov – by Fyodor Dostoevsky

…See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ~ St. Matthew 6:28-29

All created things are marked with the seal of the Trinity... The contemplation of nature has two correlative aspects. First, it means appreciating the “thusness” or “thisness” of particular things, persons and moments. We are to see each stone, each leaf, each blade of grass, each frog, each human face, for what it truly is, in all the distinctness and intensity of its specific being. As the prophet Zechariah warns us, we are not to “despise the day of small things” (4:10). “True mysticism”, says Olivier Clément, “is to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary.” ~ Metropolitan Kallistos Ware; The Orthodox Way

Even during a simple walk, it’s a mystery how easily the Great can be seen in the Small. Whether it be stoic flowers bursting through cement cracks, or a cheery family of four snowdrops, popping up like unexpected company – on a grassy boulevard.

God’s beautiful gift of nature is all around us.

All we have to do is to see what we’re looking at.

Happy Saint’s Day Zoe! God grant you many years!

PTL

Aquarium Photo of Jellyfish ~ Shared by Ellie

Scripture Art – Psalm 148

Happy Family Day to my kith and kin… by blood, heart and Holy Spirit.

PTL = 🎵 Praise the Lord! 🎵

Amen!

Blessings On A Snow Day

Feature Image by Irena

Praise the Lord from the earth… fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! ~ Psalm 148:7-8

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. ~ Psalm 51:7

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. ~ Isaiah 59:9-11

Falling snowflakes are beautiful. They swathe our backyard’s bare tree branches with mystique, and envelope everything else in a pure milk-white blanket.

But, to me, a tropical wildflower at heart, I love snow – for maybe all of 10 minutes before vehemently wishing it away.

It’s not my thing. I loathe the cold. Always have. However, it’s part of living in a climate where to every thing, there is a season.

On a recent snow day, I tried to consider the snow as a blessing in disguise. I cranked up my Hawaiian Instrumental “Summer” Music, and fiercely tackled the annual cleaning of a certain Kitchen Drawer of No Return.

Although snow is a love/hate thing for me, I must begrudgingly admit that I do love to go outside, and “listen” to the whispers of falling snowflakes. There’s a peaceful, gentle, and calm stillness… Like the earth is holding her breath, waiting with patient endurance and expectant hope – for there’s always Sonshine above, ready to pierce through those snow clouds… and sweet spring is right around the corner!

…For favourable weather, for an abundance of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times, let us pray to the Lord… ~ Litany of Peace

Forests Within Forests

I discovered my first moss forest, around the age of 6, after attempting an exuberant cartwheel, and taking a nose-dive into a shady emerald pillow of puffy moss. Its mini forest seemed like a microscopic jungle, with perhaps millions of tiny tree-like spore stalks! If one were an actual fairy tale giant, this would be (no doubt) how one would view the world from on high.

When walking through nature I marvel at the many layers of forests. There are forests within forests. I may be in a forest, but, there on the nursing log laying beside the trail, is another kind of forest! Moss is an ancient organism, and has many uses. It’s amazing.

Truly, the so-called little things in life, when noticed, are actually Huge. Cosmic.

St. John Chrysostom says, “Nature is our best teacher.”

Indeed.

God’s Gift of Creation is intricately and mysteriously connected.

Let us open the noetic eyes of our heart to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary.

The world is more than we know.

Withinnan

Our garden’s Johnny Jump Ups (Winter Pansies) thrive and flourish in brilliant autumnal Sonshine.

Withinnan is an Old English word (before 1000 A.D.) referring to a motion “from within”.

The Cause of all things, through the beauty, goodness and profusion of His intense Love for everything, goes out of Himself in His Providential care for the whole creation… He relinquishes His utter transcendence in order to dwell in all things while yet remaining within Himself… ~ St. Maximos the Confessor (The Philokalia)

Nature is the Secret Gospel!

The Mystery of Creation is all around us!

By opening our noetic eyes, we see God – withinnan the Beauty of His Holiness.