Columbine ~ Mary's Footsteps

This lovely purple Columbine is blooming near the chapel here. It grows in dappled light under an Arborvitae, so the sun doesn't scorch it. Columbines used to be called Mary's Slippers. I'm thinking maybe it's the flower in bud that more resembles a slipper. Be that as it may, I would finetune it abit and simply call the flower, Mary's Footsteps.

Remembering Mary's footsteps, her Visitation comes to mind — her hastily arranged journey to share with her elder relative, Elizabeth, the  happy new of her pregnancy and her prayer-declaration, "For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name," Luke 1:49. Another translation says, "The Lord has done marvels for me..." We can all announce that!

I'm color-blind, but the May trees are such a green, even I can see it.

That there is a light spring rain this early morning,

That the bees made the honey for my A.M. tea,

That there are such good people in my life,

That I was taught to read as a young boy,

That I had a wonderful dinner with my sister this week,

That the robin is still sitting on her nest in the peach tree,

That my phone takes photographs,

That this computerized message will go around the world...

   you get the idea.

But there is more. In the Middle Ages the Columbine was considered an important medical herb used as a cure for "pestilence." How appropriate is this for today. The word pestilence usually refers to the plague, but it can also refer to anything that is considered harmful or evil. How un-Christly, when someone thinks of others as a pestilence.  In which case, a heart can be pestilent — poisoned. 

We need to stop wondering so much about other people and give our energies more to recounting the Lord's marvels. There are so many!

Mary's Garden

Forget Me Not ~ Mary's Eyes

The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins calls The Virgin Mary the air we breathe. Perhaps another way of saying it is Mary creates an atmosphere around Jesus: humility, quiet reflection, maternal love, the clean heart of the Gospels, living in God's Word, endurance and fidelity, praise and faith. 

Prior to the Protestant Reformation all flowers in Europe had Marian names celebrating some aspect or virtue of the Mother of Jesus. Mary Gardens were planted to celebrate and keep that atmospheric sense sensually alive! 

The Medieval poem-prayer to the Virgin Mary: O Maria virgo pia - which accompanies the flower images here,  is sung by the group Anonymous 4. The group's name Anonymous suggests that the praises matter, not who the singers are. Here is the English translation of the Latin: 

O pious Virgin Mary,
full of the grace of God,
you are called Star of the Sea
giving comfort by your light.

Christ's body,
which you have truly carried in your womb,
is hallowed so that through it 
the serpent is completely doomed.

This is the body, O Mary,
born by you as virgin,
with which you were pregnant,
pious virgin, by the Holy Ghost.

This is the flesh
nailed to the yoke of the cross;
after its crucifixion it rose 
and returned life to the world.

Let us now praise 
Mary's wonderful Son
and sing this song
to the King of all kings.