A ROSE OF SUCH VIRTUE



Advent is NOT Christmas.  No time yet for carols and merry-making.  Advent is a season of expectation where the cold, dry, dead-seeming earth is waiting for the arrival of the LIGHT.     We are all expecting.... the Mother has not yet met her Divine Child.  The Mother... The Rose of Such Virtue, the rose that bare Jesu: Alleluia.  In this rose contained was Heaven and earth in little space. 

Res Miranda [miracle of miracles].  That was the theme for our church's choir concert last Sunday.  The Cantor, David Harp, asked me to do the flowers to adorn the sanctuary, a great honor.  And a little later he  also asked me to read two poems during the concert.  Gulp!  For the flowers we decided on something stark and dramatic representing the rose that blooms in winter.  Two arrangements for the two front corners of the altar plus two swags hanging from the reredos.  I think the results speak for themselves.  The reading was harrowing but well worth the effort  to hear the Rev. Tim Wengert say to me later: "Hearing you read is like going to a gourmet restaurant, to savor every word".  Oh my!