“If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heartof man become in its long journey toward the stars?” – G.K. Chesterton(From Maisie Ward’s book Return to Chesterton, p. 161)
Whenever I pray in a Eucharistic or adoration chapel, my eyes are often drawn to the plants and floral arrangements adorning the prayer space. Although I try to redirect my gaze toward the Blessed Sacrament, my eyes inevitably return to the colorful plants. I am reminded that the consecrated bread of Eucharist was once wheat, flowering stalk, seed.Creation is sacrament – a physical sign pointing to and revealing something greater than itself. God is creative, beautiful, and complex…but also simple, humble and approachable.The flowers, the wheat that made the bread that became the Eucharist, the thirty hidden years of Jesus’ life that the Bible does not record – all these things have, at one time, been seeds in the black earth, their potential hidden from us until their time came.So it is with us.The seed or imprint of God’s life exists within each of us. It comes to maturity in the sunshine of our joys and successes as well as in nursery of the dark, tear-soaked soil of our mistakes, failures, and struggles. Breaking through all that, we extend and reach upward for the stars of heaven as if wanting to be where they are, often not realizing that, in Christ, we are already there.May we always be attentive to the signs God provides along our journey – signs that point the way out of the black earth to the way that reaches up to the heavens and into the starry arms and bosom of God.
 |
Sister Ann Marie WainrightSister Ann Marie Wainright is a Benedictine Sister of St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth, Minnesota. Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, she worked as a CPA for many years before earning dual masters degrees in counseling and pastoral studies. Sister Ann Marie is interested how people encounter God in their daily lives and how they use their faith and spirituality in meeting difficult challenges. See all of Sister Ann Marie’s blogs. |