Sunday in the Easter Octave: "As stars illumine the night..."

Astrophotography 

Lot's of people write about the sadness they feel living in a world that's so dark and fearsome. Sister Faustina (1905-1938) wrote her diary as Hitler (German Chancellor 1933-45) was gearing up and accruing power to himself. She wrote in her diary:

"Chosen souls are, in my hand, lights which I cast into the darkness of the world and with which I illumine it. As stars illumine the night, so chosen souls illumine the earth. And the more perfect a soul is, the stronger and the more far reaching is the light shed by it. It can be hidden and unknown, even to those closest to it, and yet its holiness is reflected in souls even to the most distant extremities of the world."

We don't talk much about our souls anymore. And that's a shame because soul is our innermost part. We could say it's the part of us that is most real. But distracted as we are by so much outer life, our souls are often unattended and un-evolved. But Faustina uses the word soul generously in her writing. In this entry she likens souls to stars shining in a dark world. What did she know about the spreading darkness coming out of Germany? She died in 1938, the year before her country, Poland, was invaded by Germany.

I have an extra thought though about Faustina's use of the word chosen. As if some souls are chosen and other souls not? I'd say, as God's children, we're all chosen to be lights in a dark world. But we're free to do with that divine honor as we will. So, as stars illumine the night...

let your compassion shine.
let your generosity shine.
let your smile shine.
let your eyes shine.
let your hospitality shine.
let your availability shine.

Like Paul Simon sings in The Only Living Boy in New York, "Hey, let your honesty shine, shine, shine..."

And then let God do with it as God wills.

Saturday in the Easter Octave: "And God made the seasons."

Warm and Bright ~ Photograph: Jeriff Cheng

And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth."  (Genesis 1:14)

This verse recounts the fourth day of creation in the Book of Genesis: God created the seasons. We might think the author had in mind the four seasons we're accustomed to: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. But an ancient agricultural Chinese Calendar,  watched the movements of nature so closely it envisioned twenty-four seasons. And while it acknowledged solstices and equinoxes, it looked more deeply, seeing movements within the water, air, the animals and plants. China is a vast country and so the calendar was not accurate for all parts of the country. We can imagine local adjustments were made. 

This calendar invites us to be more observant and reflective. Here are the approximate dates and the lovely seasonal names assigned to each bit of time and change: 

January 6 ~ the cold begins
January 20 ~ the coldest time
February 4 ~ spring begins
February 19 ~ the rains begin
March 5 ~ the insects and animals awaken
March 20 ~ night and day are of equal length.
April 4 ~ the time of warm and bright
April 19 ~ the rains helpful to grow
May 5 ~ summer begins
May 20 ~ the seeds of summer begin to grow
June 5 ~ the wheat grows ripe
June 21 ~ the longest day and the shortest night
July 7 ~ slight heat
July 22 ~ thunder storms begin ~ the hottest time
August 7 ~ autumn begins
August 23 ~ the heat hides
September 7 ~ dew begins
September 22 ~ the middle of autumn
October 8 ~ the dew is very cold
October 23 ~ frost descends
November 7 ~ winter begins
November 22 ~ the lesser snow
December 7 ~ the greater snow
December 21 ~ the shortest day ~ the longest night

I'm thinking of the yellow Coltsfoot of yesterday's post - it blooms only for a short time. We could call that flowering time a season. A season could be marked by the spring sound of the peepers which began chirping like clockwork last night (check out the post for April 14, 2015). We could create our own personal seasons of gratitude.

Friday in the Easter Octave: The Moral Hint of Coltsfoot

This is Coltsfoot which might be mistaken for the common dandelion. Coltsfoot spreads by rhizomes which are horizontal stems running on, or just under, the surface of the soil, sending out new roots and shoots along the way. The Audubon book of Native Plants reports that Coltsfoot grows along roadsides and in waste places. 

That having been said, I welcome Coltsfoot every year as it seems to be the earliest flower detected in March, and even February if the conditions are right. Coltsfoot brings a bright yellow-joy to marginal or useless situations. And Jesus said, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." (John 15:11) My joy...your joy.

I remember once seeing a badly behaved and emotionally stuck teenaged girl dissolve into convulsive tears, and when the staff member asked in frustration, "What do you want?" she blurted out, "I just want to be happy." Isn't that what every human person wants - to be happy and not to suffer? 

So here's a simple thought for our everyday morality as we'll each make hundreds of decisions and choices today: to bring happiness...to alleviate suffering - maybe especially to those places and persons deemed miserable, negligible, barren, non-productive. We might scroll back up to the top now to have a more meditative look at the Coltsfoot plant which blooms bright yellow along roadsides and in waste places.