seek, praise, proclaim

God is truth, and whoever seeks the truth is seeking God,
whether he knows it or not.
St. Edith Stein
from “Edith Stein” by Waltraud Herbstrith

(a drive through Cades Cove, The Great Smokey MTs. National Park / Abby Cook / 2020)

“Let all creation help you to praise God.
Give yourself the rest you need.
When you are walking alone, listen to the sermon preached to you by the flowers,
the trees, the shrubs, the sky, the sun, and the whole world.
Notice how they preach to you a sermon full of love, of praise of God,
and how they invite you to proclaim the greatness of the one who has given them being.”
St. Paul of the Cross

one day, we shall see…

“At the end of our life, we shall be judged by charity.”
St. Paul of the Cross

(Getty Image)

“How great is the sweetness which a soul experiences, when, in the time of prayer, God,
by a ray of his own light, shows to her his goodness and his mercies towards her,
and particularly the love which Jesus Christ has borne to her in his passion!
She feels her heart melting, and, as it were, dissolved through love.

But in this life we do not see God as he really is:
we see him, as it were, in the dark.

‘We see now through a glass in a dark manner, but then face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12).
Here below God is hidden from our view; we can see him only with the eyes of faith:
how great shall be our happiness when the veil shall be raised,
and we shall be permitted to behold God face to face!
We shall then see his beauty, his greatness, his perfection, his amiableness,
and his immense love for our souls.”
St. Alphonsus Liguori, p. 133
An Excerpt From
Sermons of St. Alphonsus Liguori

Irish fuchsia

“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.”
Georgia O’Keeffe

“Why are you weeping, ye gentle flowers?
Are ye not blest in your sunny bowers?
Have you startling dreams that make ye weep,
When waking up from your holy sleep?
(excerpt form A Song of the Flowers)
Harriett Annie Wilkins

(prolific hanging fuchsia / Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland / Julie Cook / 2015)

What a joyful day it was when God created flowers…

Let everything in creation draw you to God. Refresh your mind with some innocent recreation and needful rest, if it were only to saunter through the garden or the fields, listening to the sermon preached by the flowers, the trees, the meadows, the sun, the sky, and the whole universe. You will find that they exhort you to love and praise God; that they excite you to extol the greatness of the Sovereign Architect Who has given them their being.’
St. Paul of the Cross

I marvel in your greatness through small wonders

(Photograph: Julie’s backyard and new camera)

“Let everything in creation draw you to God. Refresh your mind with some innocent recreation and needful rest, if it were only to saunter through the garden or the fields, listening to the sermon preached by the flowers, the trees, the meadows, the sun, the sky, and the whole universe. You will find that they exhort you to love and praise God; that they excite you to extol the greatness of the Sovereign Architect Who has given them their being.”
St. Paul of the Cross