The Snow Buttercup

Psalm 103:15-17
“As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children.”

Wikipedia has very little to say about the Snow buttercup –Ranunculus nivalis. This is what it says:

It displays prevalent heliotropism, thus gaining an advantage in its harsh, cold environment through capturing more solar energy by following the sun.

Heliotropism is a fascinating property. It means that the flower tracks the position of the sun during the day, moving its little yellow parabolic flowers by using special motor cells so that it is constantly pointing towards the sun, as if it were a little radio…

“Are THEY NOT ALL M INISTERING SPIRITS, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” HEBREWS 1:14

“God has angels who whole work is to draw those who shall be heirs of salvation. . . .The angels’ work is to keep back the powers of SATAN.”

“The work of these heavenly beings is to prepare the inhabitants of this world to become CHILDREN OF GOD, pure, holy, undefiled. But men, though professing to be…

Saturday is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today let us meditate on her solitude during those three years of her Divine Son’s public life.

The role of the Blessed Virgin during the public life of her Son was totally hidden: a life of loving contemplation, prayer and sacrifice. An essential part of this sacrifice was her solitude.

But what loneliness! Let us think of a poor widow when her only son is at war: what anguish! She is told that he will have to take part in a very dangerous battle, what agony! And at last she is told that death is inevitable, what an ordeal! What bitter loneliness for such a mother,whose life can be compared to a deserted road that ends in the desert.

But what are these examples of human loneliness compared to the life of Our Lady? For her, her Child Jesus and her Bridegroom…

To the one who moved on.

It was not the time to. It was not the time to let go of me so soon. Maybe it seems too soon to me but too late to you. I just want to know how did you forget the love you wanted to last forever, how did you let go of the girl you planned a future with?

Was it easy to end the 3-year-old love and move on? How did you do that? Because I’m stuck. I’m stuck in a spiral. Every time I take a step forward, I come back to the same place, I started from. But you, you took a step forward and not even for once looked back. You did not look back at the disaster you left me with.

All this letting go and moving on isn’t something I am capable of. I fear I’ll never be…

Reflection 30: Obedience to God One key to holiness is obedience. Adam and Eve fell from grace by disobedience and we are restored to grace by obedience. Obedience can be hard and requires a deep interior decision. Look for opportunities to be obedient to Jesus, especially when you do not feel like doing so. Those are moments of great grace and conversion (SeeDiary#28). Work at being humble today. Only through humility will we see the pride that leads to disobedience. Pride leads to an obstinate persistence in our sin and a refusal to be open to God’s abundant Mercy. Reflect upon your humble admission of sin and your willingness to repent of that sin so that you can imitate our Lord and His Blessed Mother in their act of perfect obedience to the Will of the Father in all things. Lord, help me to humble myself before Your…

A masterpiece of icon painting – the image of the Mother of God “Seraphim-Ponetaevka” is currently on display at the Andrey Rublev Museum in Moscow

This beautiful icon has an extremely interesting history and its connection with the family of Emperor Nicholas II.

Before the revolution, it belonged to Colonel Dmitry Nikolaevich Loman (1868-1918), who held several important government positions. Loman maintained a deep and personal relationship with Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna – the latter was the godmother of his son Yuri.

The icon, painted by one of the best icon painters of the time, Nikolai Yemelyanov, was presented to Loman by the Empress for his work on the construction of Feodorovsky Sovereign Cathedral at Tsarskoye Selo.

After the 1917 Revolution, the icon, was sold abroad, where it changed several owners, and then returned to Russia and is now in the private collection of Igor Sysolyatin.

© Paul Gilbert…

“Your entire army is to march around the city once a day for six days.” -Joshua 6:3

When I have a problem in my life, it can look as big as Jericho. The walls may look formidable. In my waking moments, I find myself going around and around my dilemma.

God told Joshua to go around Jericho once every day(Joshua 6:3). I learned to discipline myself to go around my particular Jericho only once! True, there was an appropriate time for Joshua and his men to circumnavigate the city seven times(Joshua 6:4, 15), and there is an appropriate time for me to spend special effort in focused prayer about my difficulty. But I learned to wait for God to direct me into such a time.

The priests carried the Ark of the Lord representing the presence of Yahweh with his people. Each day as I…