SPRING: HOPE's DIVINE POSSIBILITY 23.4.14

In the Hebrew scriptures the promise of God's abundance is often conceived of
as blossoming in the desert.
In that harsh landscape, a flower bursting forth from the dry land is a symbol of
divine generosity, fruitfulness, and hope.   * #Hope is a stance of radical openness to the God of newness and #possibility. {tweetable}
* When we #hope, we acknowledge that God has an imagination far more expansive than we do. {tweetable}
* The fertility of spring speaks of an abundantly creative God who is at the source of the potent life force beating at the heart of the world. Created in God's image, we are called to participate in this generous creativity ourselves. Our own blossoming leads us to share our gifts in service to others. * Take time this week to meditate with gratitude on a flower, appreciating all of its qualities of beauty, how it simply is what it was created to be. Allow yourself to fill with joyful gratitude for the gifts of the earth. Open yourself to experience the fullness of this flower and all of the ways God delights in the beauty of blossoms.

Then shift your focus from the flower to yourself. Take this sense of wonder and awe at the beauty of the flower and imagine how God gazes with delight on the beauty of who you are.
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What aspects of your being can you imagine God relishing? What are the longings inside of you God is asking you to embrace?[Tweet]

Rest in this awareness of the joy and delight of God in your own beautiful blossoming for several minutes. Notice what new longings it stirs in you.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.~Marcel Proust [Tweet]

Perhaps you'd like to share your exploration and discoveries.
Please accept this as your personal Invitation to Poetry and/or Photography .

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With April comes a new Invitation for Contemplation. In the northern hemisphere, spring is slowly arriving with birdsong and blooming. Wherever we live on this beautiful planet, we can tend to the flowering that happens within after a season of fallowness. The outer seasons become a mirror for our inner experience.
The text with which we are praying this month is from the Hebrew wisdom book the
Song of Songs, which the ancient rabbis called "the holy of holies."
"Arise and bloom" is our theme,
tending to the ways our hearts and souls are breaking forth into blossom
after a season of fallowness and stillness.

I invite you to set aside some time this week to pray with the text below.  See these Lectio Divina guidelines.

Lean into silence, pray the text, listen to what shimmers, allow the images and memories to unfold, tend to the invitation, and then sit in stillness.

For see, the winter is past,

the rains are over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth,

the time of pruning the vines has come,

and the song of the dove is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth its figs,

and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.

Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,

and come!   —Song of Songs 2:11-13

After you have prayed with the text (and feel free to pray with it more than once – 

St. Ignatius wrote about the deep value of repetition in prayer, especially when something feels particularly rich) spend some time journaling what insights arise for you.

~ from  Christine Valters Paintner -
  Abbey of the Arts *

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- HollyGerth -
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- Essential Fridays -
- Make a Difference Mondays - - Woman to Woman -
- Hope in Every Season -
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