His Rough Sketches

Painting: Carl Spitzweg

Every Creature in the World

Painting: Ma Ch'üan

What May Happen Tomorrow

On Which They Are Gazing

Not Without Praising

If Created Things

You Rule the Surging

Painting:  Albert Bierstadt; Seal Rock, California

The Gathering of the Waters

The Earth is Full

Because He Has Made a Dandelion

'We do not have to travel the world over 

to praise the wonders of His creation.  

We can grow exultant over one wildflower. 

We can find reason to praise Him 

every day of our life because 

He has made a dandelion.'  

Mother Mary Francis PCC, 'Walls Around the World,' Poor Clares, Roswell NM

Photo © N Shuman

Frost Like Ashes

 

'He sends forth his command to the earth; swiftly runs His word!

He spreads snow like wool; frost He strews like ashes.

He scatters His hail like crumbs; before His cold the waters freeze.

He sends His word and melts them; He lets His breeze blow and the waters run.'

Psalm 147:15-18

Painting: Peder Mørk Mønsted, in US public domain due to age

Snow and Mist...

N Shuman photo

Before Those Greater Splendors

Closer Than Water

The Trouble With Autumn

Someone recently asked me which is my favorite season. I was stumped.

I realized I don't have a favorite. Or perhaps the truth is: I have four. I love autumn because of crisp red leaves and soft gray rains and whistling winds. Winter is my favorite when it swaddles the earth in a shushing hush of snow. Yet I am totally enamored of spring, with its peonies and tulips and lilacs. And who doesn't love summer nights, with their fireflies and their cricket lullabies? 

Seasons are not perfect, of course. Summer brings heat and biting bugs along with a soothing cover of green. In winter the long late light of summer nights is missing. Springtime storms can be unnerving. And the trouble with Autumn is - it's not Spring.

'For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.' (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Painting: H.A. Brendekilde, 1902

But An Atom

Unless By Frequent Rains

By A Tempest Purified

'Have you ever noticed rocks in the sea, beaten by the tempest? A furious wave dashes against the rock, another and yet another does likewise, yet the rock is unmoved. 

'But look at it after the storm has subsided, and you will see that the flood has but served to wash and purify it of the defilement it had contracted during the calm.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Painting: Lionel Walden, Crashing Sea 1904

Fast Mount the Pointed Shafts of Light

            'The dawn is sprinkling in the east
            Its golden shower, as day flows in;
            Fast mount the pointed shafts of light:
            Farewell to darkness and to sin!' 

            Roman Breviary

            Painting: Jules Tavernie, Sunrise Over Diamond Head,1888

A Perfume Sweet

'Our mortifications, humiliations, prayers - in a word, all the exercises we practice - what are they but acts of virtue, which are like so many beautiful flowers that send up a perfume extremely sweet before the Divine Majesty?'

St. Francis de Sales

Painting: John William Godward, Sweet Violets (detail), in US public domain due to age