Images like this make us think of nature reviving in spring and the annual life-cycle starting anew. Fruit trees and bushes will soon show the first signs of budding and flowering, and all the bedding plants throw out new shoots. May we, from child to grandparent, enjoy many moments of tranquil reflection in our gardens, as well as in Rathcoole park, this year.
And Thoughts on Lent, beginning Wednesday 26th. There is the garden of the soul, our own inner garden, where seedlings like new initiatives / good intentions / wishes to help others in some way etc. all take root and spring up from. Don't we all want our deeds to bear fruit both for ourselves and others? (These very words are being typed out by a volunteer trying to use the few skills he has as a form of service to the parish. If there is someone out there reading this that has skills to produce better flowers and fruits in this 'plot' of a webpage, please come forward.) Everything we give our full thought, attention and effort to is a kind of garden, where we see to it that our work blossoms as best it can for the common good.
The first person to see Jesus on Easter Sunday morning was Mary Magdalene (John 20. 11-16). She took Jesus risen from the dead to be the gardener. What a nice combination (brief and mistaken) between the ordinary workman and the most extraordinary person of all!
Read about a new parish initiative for Lent and Easter this year in the Newsletter for Sunday 23rd : House Masses.
