King of Flowers ?

King of Flowers for Corpus Christi.

My friend Gill wanted to give you a flower for Corpus Christi.

This is the day many Christians give thanks for the gift of the Blessed Sacrament which Jesus gave to His followers at the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday. In the Bread and Wine, prayed over and blessed, Jesus found an eternal way of being with us and feeding us on our spiritual journey to the heart of God’s Kingdom.

This gift is linked to Jesus’s Crucifixion and Resurrection when God showed us how much he loves us.

The colour of the Tree Peony can be seen as a symbol of both the Body of Jesus broken for us and the Blood shed for us. The White is tinged with Red. (And therefore, the white and red symbolize the bread and wine of the Eucharist.)

Not everyone may share that but you can, of course just simply enjoy the flower, which is very beautiful and enjoy it as a visual gift. After all, we need lots of colour and joy in our world right now. We can all share the delights of Creation.

Here’s what Gill has to say about the Peony.

Opening just in time for Corpus Christi, this tree peony (paeonia x suffruticosa) is, to me, astonishingly beautiful.

The white petals are like fine tissue paper, the markings stunning and the crown of stamens around the central pistils glorious. It reminds me of the Passion flower although there are six, not seven pistils and I think the number may vary. Bred over millennia in China, they are highly regarded as the ‘king of flowers’ and were their national flower till 1929.

Each 4-5” flower lasts for about a week and closes up at night, sheltering the centre. This year, the tree peony survived weeks of hard frosts and is in full glory in the hot sun of the last few days.

The king of flowers for Corpus Christi.

[Mr G]

A glimpse of a moment of ‘Gift’

Gill Henwood. Photo of Green Hairstreak Butterfly. Cumbria.

My friend Gill Henwood has sent me this photo of a Green Hairstreak Butterfly. It was discovered on a track in cleared woodland fells between Coniston and Hawkshead in the Lake District last Saturday. In that part of the world it is a very rare find, Gill tells me.

Of the butterfly itself she says:

that it is about 30mm wingspan, so half that when the wings are closed. Hence the impressionist close up photo with an iPhone 12 mini. This is adequate for reporting to Butterfly Conservation Cumbria or iRecord, and carrying a smart phone whilst dog walking means the opportunity can be captured- sometimes- if a tiny creature pauses long enough ( they often don’t!).

Amazing striped antennae and legs that were not visible with the naked eye. The ring-tailed lemur of butterflies!

In many cultures, the butterfly has a deep connection with souls. For some, the butterfly’s spiritual meaning resonates with the Christian belief of Ascension (of Christ) and also to creativity, pulsating joy, transformation and spiritual re-birth or growth.
It is also a sign of beauty and a symbol of hope and endurance as it flies from flower to flower. Butterflies bring joy to a garden, a country path and, even round here at present to a building site a dusting of colour.

Gill says that what she is presenting us with in her image is not so much a portrait but

“a glimpse of a moment of ‘gift’ in a sighting along the way. “. It’s an opportunity to share the exhilaration of the moment with those who can’t be up on the Cumbrian fells.”

In this period of time when so much has been taken from us and when we don’t yet understand what the ‘new normal’ is; when what we saw as important in our lives is being challenged and questioned, we need these moments of ‘gift.’ Nature has been working hard this year to show us something of ‘their world’.

David Hockney’s new book, written in collaboration with Martin Gayford, Spring cannot be cancelled’, tries to share that sense of learning deeply from the things around us, particularly the things of Nature and creation.

It is perhaps ironic that at a time when we are threatening so much of creation with extinction, birds, animals, bees, butterflies and the creativity of plants are coming to our rescue. ‘Cheer up!’ they seem to say. ‘There is so much of value that you are missing and which you didn’t see as Important.”

Now perhaps we may, which is why we must always be on the lookout for those moments of gift to be enjoyed and through which we might glimpse a different, better and more truthful life. A life of wonder, awe and inspiration. A life of breathtaking beauty and yet, a simpler life.

God gives us these glimpses of beauty, of the gift of His creative love.
As Gill suggests. “Enjoy the gift of the glimpse xx”

I am grateful for some words of St. John of the Cross who wrote which carry a profound truth…

God passes through the thicket of the world, and wherever His glance falls He turns all things to beauty.

He can even do it to us!

[Mr G and Gill]

The Message of an Icon

*Andrei Rublev. (1360-1427 or 30) Icon of the Trinity.*

The message of an Icon

Trinity Sunday is sometimes regarded by preachers as the most difficult Sunday in the year. They might agree with the late Revd. Professor Leonard Hodgson who said: ‘How many clergy, as Trinity Sunday draws near, groan within themselves at the thought that it will be their duty to try to expound this dry and abstract doctrine to congregations for whom they anticipate that it will have but little interest?’

Anyone familiar with the rather impossible ‘Athanasian Creed’ (see the Book of Common Prayer, especially on a sleepless night!) might be forgiven for being somewhat confused .What are we to make of: ‘the Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, the Holy Ghost uncreate” and all three ‘incomprehensible’ !!

God as Three in One is not an easy concept—when are three one and one three? Perhaps a simple mathematical formula could help. 1+1+1= 3 but 1x1x1=1. However, describing the very essence and nature of God by a trite mathematical formula isn’t really very prayerful or theological. It certainly doesn’t feel very loving!

The problem arises because too often it is seen as a doctrine rather than a way through which our life is enriched and given its true meaning.The Trinity is about ‘relationship’ – specifically the relationship of total love enjoyed by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Another way of seeing this is through three complementary roles which biblically the 3 persons of the Trinity have. The Father is Creator; The Son is Redeemer; the Spirit is Sustainer.

Applied to ourselves—our Father God creates us out of love; Jesus redeems us because of that love (He died and rose again so that we are caught up into eternal love) and the Holy Spirit enlivens us and awakens Godly love within us—thus sustaining us for our Christian journey through life which takes us beyond earthly death into eternal life.

If we begin to see the action of the Holy Trinity in our lives in this sort of way, then the ‘doctrine’ becomes more ‘personal’ and describes God’s relationship with us.

A famous Icon by the Russian icon-painter, Andrei Rublev, has long been seen as an Icon of the Holy Trinity. Painted around 1410 it shows the three Angels who visited Abraham at the Oak of Mamre (Genesis 18). The angels have come to represent the Trinity and they are seated around a table on which appears to be a chalice. The three angels are in a very strong relationship with each other and Rublev has managed to portray them in such a way that the viewer is drawn into the unity which exists between them. They are bound together with and in love. It is possible to draw a circle encompassing them in a loving relationship. That is why they have come to represent the Holy Trinity. But of significance is the fact that the icon not only draws you to this relationship of love, it actually invites you to share it. Rublev has painted them so that there is a space in front of them and it is done in such a way that you simply want to be there with them at the table.

So the relationship of love we see in The Father,Son and Holy Spirit isn’t exclusively between the three of them but rather an inclusive love which invites us to participate in it. We are invited by Love to join a loving relationship which if we accept it changes not only our perspective of who God is but also changes our thinking about ourselves. We are drawn by God’s love to become love.

The most exciting thing about Trinity Sunday is that it is the Festival of God in a way that no other festival is. We celebrate God in all His totality and we are invited to be part of the great mystery of Love which charges the world with a new grandeur—the grandeur of God which is glorified in human lives filled with love.

[Mr G]

God’s love lies open before us

Joyce Smith has sent us a new photo reflection.

Our resident pair of mute swans have been leading their 8 newly hatched cygnets on a daily journey of discovery in Waltham Abbey. These two are enjoying the ride and are feeling protected by their mother’s wings.
With my love and prayers.
God bless, Joyce

It has been the custom of Christians to pray together in various ways but with one intent – to nurture the World and bring people, including each other, and nature to a closeness with God. Joyce has given us an illustration of this in the photograph of the tiny mute swans gathering under the safety and protection of their mother’s wing.

There is something rather gently protective in this scene. We can sense a warmth and security and a restfulness. The caption under the photo could easily have been ‘Safe in our Mother’s arms’.

Joyce has chosen a sentence which is part of the first part of Morning Prayer or Matins as it is sometimes known.

How does this connect up with the protection and safety of the little swans ?

The problem sometimes with ‘Liturgy’ (the format and composition of worship ) is that it can be said unthinkingly. Or perhaps as part of a repetitive rhythm which encloses the Word of God it seeks to proclaim. Whereas, the Word of God should free and enclose us. That itself can be seen as placing ourselves under the protecting and nurturing of God. Maybe we aren’t too different as those baby swans after all. As we pray and recite the words of the services provided for our nourishment, we snuggle up to our protective and loving God.

There is always a sense that Morning Prayer is a beginning. We begin the day in prayer – whatever form we use.
And we have therefore come through the night safely.
So as a preparation to say : The night has passed, and the day lies open before us; let us pray with one heart and mind, begins a daily re-turning of our lives to God.
If we add to it, the second part of the sentence, that becomes abundantly clear:
As we rejoice in the gift of this new day, so may the light of your presence, O God, set our hearts on fire with love for you; now and for ever. Amen.

Whatever the day will bring; however we feel about ourselves; whatever fears we face; however lacking in confidence we are; and how lonely or sad or bored we feel, combined of course with whatever joy, hopefulness and friendship we shall share, we can remind ourselves very soon after wakening – God holds us; God protects us; God cares for us with a love beyond words. We are beginning our day in God’s presence. We know that we are secure in his protective, motherly love.

Our response to this is surely Thank You.

As the 12^th century Dominican friar and mystic said:
If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘Thank You’ (God) – It will be enough.

I’m quite sure that those cute baby mute swans will agree!

Thank you, Joyce ( and thank you, God.)

[Mr G]