Trees Dance and Sing

Betwixt and Between

Holy Cross surrounded by Hellebore Lenten Rose, Pieris Japonica, Chrysanthemums and Basil

I praise the Godhead, Unity in three Persons: for the Father is Light, the Son is Light, and the Spirit is Light, but the Light remains undivided, shining forth in oneness of Nature, yet in the three rays of the Persons… Let all the trees of the forest dance and sing, as they beheld their fellow-tree, the Cross, today receive veneration: for Christ, as Holy David prophesied, has exalted it on high… Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. I worship Thee, O holy God, as Trinity of Persons in Unity of Essence, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one Power and Kingdom, sovereign over all. Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. ~ From the Sunday of the Cross, Matins Service

Be unto me the might, the strength, and the power…the deliverer and foremost defender against my enemies… the shield and protector… my victory and establishment… ever preserving and sheltering me. ~ St. Gregory of Sinai

He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ~St. Matthew 10:38

For in the Cross of Christ Crucified lies both “the power of God and the wisdom of God” for those being saved. ~ 1 Corinthians 1:24

Yesterday was the Third Sunday of Great Lent, and we’re at the half-way point! The Cross is brought out as a consolation for our efforts, and as we venerate the Cross, we remember that our Lord Jesus Christ’s Precious and Life-Giving Cross is Everything.

It stands Mighty. Strong. Redemptive. Invincible. Glorious. Victorious.

The Cross is an Eternal Symbol of Hope and Love.

As we struggle with a myriad of personal crosses, may we steadfastly persevere on our Lenten Journey, with eyes brightly fixed forward towards Golgotha, where we may venerate His Cross, and cast all our burdens down at His Holy Feet. For soon, we too, shall gaze upon the Shining, Holy Resurrection of Christ.

O come all ye faithful!

Our Risen Lord holds out His Arms to embrace the whole world!

Greenwood of Praise

An Ancient Forest Exudes Holiness

Through the Cross, Joy has to all the world! Let all the trees of the forest dance and sing, let all the trees clap their hands. ~ Sunday of the Cross

It was a beautiful, sunny autumn day when we recently revisited Cathedral Grove, an old haunt of ours from years past. We walked with an awe that never grows old – amongst those majestic 800+ year old giants of cedar and fir within this venerable greenwood. Sometimes, it seemed like the forest held its collective breath – until another gentle, spicy breeze would evoke a contented sigh of exhalation. Mysterious rustles in the bracken’s muted woodland paths beside the burbling creek were overridden with the steady staccato of sweet birdsong. Suddenly, a melodious thrush called out from the canopy high above, with a heartfelt, piercing trill of pure joy.

In bird lyrics, this is what it surely sang… O Lord, how wondrous are thy works! In Wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.~ Psalm 104:24

Amen!

The Wood of the Cross…

…hath now put forth flower… ~ Katavasia After Ode 3 for the Exaltation of the Cross

Our Risen Lord holds out His Arms to embrace the whole world!

Festal Blessings of the Heart

Veneration of the Cross, Third Sunday in Great Lent, coincided this year with the set Feast of the Annunciation, on April 7th. The Precious Cross was decorated in traditional red colours… using roses and carnations. However, and alas, even after scouring the grocery store, there was no fresh basil (also traditional to use when decorating the Cross) to be found. So, from our garden, fragrant pink pieris japonica and white viburnum were added.

Yesterday, the morning sun danced and blazed brightly on my face. I closed my eyes to bask in its warmth.

Antiphonal chirps and trills of birdsong resounded. At the raucous cry of a seagull overhead, I opened my eyes and smiled at the added ambience.

Not to be outdone, budding catkins nodded vehemently over the top of the pergola, each fuzzy leaflet highlighted with a tiny halo of luminous, Gladsome Light. I desperately wanted to run and grab my phone camera to catch this breathtaking beauty… but knew the special light would change in a second or two, and I would forever lose the moment – without being in the moment. I took a picture instead… with my mind’s eye, and can see this sight even now as I type. I hope to remember it forever.

From the porch roof, remnants of raindrops stubbornly clung as lustrous, pearly, stalactites, until they chose to let go. Their occasional drips echoed as muffled percussion on the patio flagstones below, perfectly complimenting the surrounding avian symphony.

And the trees! With branches lifted skyward as if in supplication, they swayed and danced with expressive abandon (as only trees can in a festal morning wind)… kicking up their rooty heels with joy!

Stop. Look. Listen with your heart. Let it dance with the trees, in joy and gratitude at God’s Creation!

Let all the trees of the forest dance and sing, as they behold their fellow-tree, the Cross, today receiving veneration: for Christ, as holy David prophesied, has exalted it on high. I died through a tree, but I have found in thee a Tree of Life, O Cross of Christ. ~ Sunday of the Cross, 8th Ode

God is everywhere present and fills all things! The Three-Branched Cross of Christ is Life!

Alleluia and Amen!

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!

Pining For the Green

Kilauea, Kauai ~ July 2023

Whoever plants a tree, plants hope, peace, and love and has the blessings of God. ~ Elder Amphilochios of Patmos (Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit)

Let all the trees of the forest dance and sing, let all the trees clap their hands. ~ Sunday of the Cross

It’s that time of year again!

February brings
keen yearnings for the verdant
em’rald greens of spring.

Tiny tentative
tight fuzzy fronds of patience
cling to hopeful vines.

Tired of deciduous difficulties… it’s with faith and hope that we can patiently await the eternal, spiritual springs of God’s help!

In Purple Pastures

Summer Solstice Strolling through Lavender Fields… a testament of nature praising God! ~ Image by Melania

O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth… O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness… and let the earth be glad… Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice. ~ Psalm 96:1, 9, 11, 12

Make peace with yourself, and both heaven and earth will make peace with you. ~ St. Isaac the Syrian

Sometimes… just standing in a garden is enough.

With joy and love in Christ.

Because

Image by Barbara Jackson from Pixabay

…How can we not?

Rejoicing in His Creatures

Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay

When God, who is absolute fullness, brought creatures into existence, it was not done to fulfill any need but so that His creatures should be happy to share His likeness, and so that He himself might rejoice in the joy of His creatures as they draw inexhaustibly upon the Inexhaustible. ~ St. Maximus the Confessor

Love all God’s creation, the whole of it and every grain of sand. 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. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

I will never laugh at anyone for grieving over a loved beast. I think God wants us to love Him more, not to love creatures (even animals) less. We love everything in one way too much (i.e., at the expense of our love for Him), but in another way we love everything too little. No person, animal, flower, or even pebble has ever been loved too much – i.e., more than every one of God’s works deserves. ~ C. S. Lewis

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. ~ Elder Porphyrios

…Animals can instinctively sense if you love them. The animals in Paradise felt the fragrance of Grace and served Adam. Since the transgression, nature groans together with man… My mind tells me that even the animals are better than me; so, I humble myself and obey them. Very early this morning, being tired from praying all night and exhausted because of my illness, I lay down to rest. After a while, I heard a kitten meowing outside my cell as if she needed something. I really wanted to rest, but I humbled myself and went against my own will. I obeyed the kitten and replied to her calling. I went to open the door. It had started to rain and I let her in so she wouldn’t get wet. What do you think then? Should I obey the animals or not? My thoughts tell me I should. ~ St. Paisios

With love and gratitude to my past creatures (dogs, rabbit, goldfish, birds and cats), who’ve made my life richer… Such a blessing to have been their human for a time!

Oh… and last but not least, cheers to the current grand-cat-by-default… who deigns to allow me to feed her treats.

Divine Choreography

A Gardener’s Delight!

Final Encore of one diverse Floral Troupe’s whirling, spinning, Petal Pirouette [Pronounced pee-roo–et]! ~ photo shared by Melania

Christ is Risen!

Celestial Music
Out of Eternity
Music was heard,
And into Infinity
Straightaway flowed,
All chaos along with it
Taking away.
In the chasm like a whirlwind
The stars began swirling,
Their every ray singing
Like musical strings,
And life, being stirred
By this Divine Vibration,
Shows only to him
Its true inspiration,
Who is sometimes attune
To this music celestial,
Whose mind is wide open,
Whose heart is aflame.
~ Y.P. Polonsky

In the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, the godparent holds or follows the newly-illumined (depending on their age) behind the priest, three times around the Baptismal Font, clasping a baptismal candle which symbolizes the Divine Light of Christ. The Procession is like a joyful dance as we embark upon the first few steps of our new life in Christ, while the clergy and choir sing, “As many as have been baptised into Christ, have put on Christ. Alleluia!”

In the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, the Priest leads the couple in a Procession around the stand on which the Holy Gospel and Blessing Cross have been placed. Here too, the choir sings as the husband and wife take their first steps of holy wedlock together, and the Church (symbolized by the Priest leading the way) will help guide them in the way they should step. This part of the ceremony is sometimes called the Dance of Isaiah or the Dance of Life.

Let all the trees of the forest dance and sing, let all the trees clap their hands. ~ Sunday of the Cross

Whether with people or in nature, there is a Divine Choreography and it’s on us (of free will) to learn the Qualities of Movement to Life’s Dance of Truth. Through practice, we can move gracefully to any new melody. If we inadvertently have our own toes painfully trod upon during the Great Dance of Life, there is St. Paisios’ dynamic quote: So in every test, let us say: “Thank you, my God, because this was needed for my salvation.” Remembering this helps reset our internal rhythm… it enables us to glide forward… it inspires us to kick up our heels again with joy… attuned anew… to the Divine Vibration!

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. ~ Isaiah 40:8