Spring is one of my favorite seasons of the year. Each year
I have waited and watched for the first violet and the first daffodil. This
spring, however, something changed. It was the grass that caught and held my
attention. I stood in front of our monastery and looked around in amazement and
delight at the greenness of the grass. I don’t remember ever having seen it
look so green. When I casually mentioned that to a friend she gave me a book
about St. Hildegard of Bingen, a highly gifted and holy Benedictine woman who
lived in the twelfth century.
One of Hildegard’s terms may have given a name to what I was
sensing. For greenness she uses the Latin word viriditas which is a dynamic and energetic word. According to
Hildegard this viriditas enters into
the very fabric of the universe. The world in the height of the spring season
is filled with it. Even “the smallest twig on the most insignificant tree is
animated with viriditas.” (God
breathed the breath of viriditas into
Adam and Eve, of course, but that is subject for another blog!) Finally,
Hildegard writes, it is the sun that brings the life of viriditas into the world. That thought is beautiful to me and
immediately my mind transfers “the sun” into “the Son”.
Our
monastery, like Hildegard’s, is enclosed by trees of all shapes and sizes and
shades of green. All are rooted deeply, except for the newly planted saplings,
in earth covered by a blanket of green. We sisters find it a blessing to gather
in chapel four times daily to praise the Creator from whom all greenness comes.
Sr. Justina Franxman, OSB
Thank you sister, I have always love the way you write your blog post. Spring is my favorite seasons as well and I usually start my spring by having intense spring cleaning (mattress cleaning, curtain cleaning etc). Appreciating nature is one way of appreciating God's creation. We are blessed to be under the arms of God.
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