Through Thorns and Roses

'Oh!  Let us love perfectly this Divine Being, Who prepares us for so much sweetness in heaven.  Let us be all for Him; and let us journey on, night and day, through thorns and roses, to reach this heavenly Jerusalem.'       

St. Francis de Sales  

Photo © 2012 N Shuman






To return to the 'Monastic Adventure in Sequence' post, click here 

 

His Garden of Delights

'Let us make of our hearts a Garden of Delights, 

where our sweet Saviour may come to take His rest.'

St. Therese of Lisieux

Painting:  Max Liebermann, in US public domain due to age 

special thanks to Trish for sharing this quote in a comment 



To continue visiting 'the garden,' click this line
 

My Watered Garden

"Prayer is to our soul what rain is to the soil.  Fertilize the soil ever so richly; it will remain barren unless fed by frequent rains."  (St. John Vianney)

"He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails."  (Isaiah 58:11)

"The more rain falls on the earth, the softer it makes it.  Similarly, Christ's holy Name gladdens the earth of our heart the more we call upon it."  (St. Hesychois)


To look at 'His Garden of Delights,' click this line

My Dry Garden

Monasteries are not drought-proof.  When skies close up and rains no longer soak the ground, monastery fields and gardens are no less subject to dryness than are any other plots of land. 

The monastery of the heart is not drought-proof, either.  Sometimes we feel as if our souls are barren, lifeless, parched.  There are days when our prayers seem to go nowhere, times when we feel that God Himself has left the universe to dry up and wither to dust. 

If we’ve ever felt this way, we are not alone.  “I could neither pray nor read,” wrote St. Teresa of Avila about one such experience, “but there I remained, for hours and hours together, uneasy in mind and afflicted in spirit on account of the weight of my trouble, and of the fear that perhaps after all I was being tricked by the devil, and wondering what in the world I could do for my relief.  Not a gleam of hope seemed to shine upon me from either earth or heaven; except just this: that in the midst of all my fears and dangers I never forgot how Our Lord must be seeing the weight of all I endured….”  

So:  we’re not alone in having such experiences.  But what do we do about them?

I have found that the saints help in this kind of challenge.   

"If you do nothing else the whole time of prayer than bring your heart back and put it beside Our Lord, although each time you do so it turns away from Him, your hour will be very well employed.” (St. Francis de Sales) 

“One single act done with aridity of spirit is worth more than many done with feelings of devotion.”  (St. Francis de Sales)  

"His will is, that entering into prayer, we should be prepared to suffer the pain of continual distractions, dryness and disgust, which may come upon us, and that we should remain as constant as if we had enjoyed much peace and consolation.  It is quite certain that our prayer will be none the less pleasing to God nor less useful to ourselves, for having been made with difficulty.” (St. Francis de Sales)

Text herein is a re-post. © 2012 Nancy Shuman. 


Painting of desert:  Carl Eytel, 1914

Paining of dead flower:  Manuel Ocaranza (detail) 



To look at 'My Watered Garden,' click this line 

 

O Garden Dweller

'Arise, My beloved, My beautiful one, and come!  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!'

'My Lover belongs to me and I to Him; He browses among the lilies.  Until the day breathes cool and the shadows lengthen, roam, my Lover, like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of Bether.' 

'You are an enclosed garden, My sister, My bride, an enclosed garden, a fountain sealed...'

'Arise, north wind!  Come, south wind!  Blow upon my garden, that its perfumes may spread abroad...'

'I have come to My garden, My Sister, My bride; I gather My myrrh and My spices...'

'My Lover has come down to His garden, to the beds of spice, to browse in the garden and to gather lilies.  My Lover belongs to me and I to Him; He browses among the lilies..'

'O garden-dweller, My friends are listening for your voice, let Me hear it!'

(Excerpts from dialogues between Lover and Beloved in Song of Songs)

Painting:  Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Bride from Song of Songs





To look at dryness in the garden, click this line

 

My Garden is His

"''Let my beloved come into His garden,' 
says the spouse of the Canticles...   
Now, the Divine Spouse 
comes into His garden 
when He comes into a devout soul, 
for since His delight is to be with 
the children of men, 
where can He repose better
than in the soul 
that He has made 
in His own image and likeness?  
In this garden He Himself 
plants the loving delight 
that we have in His goodness, 
and on which we feed our souls."  

St. Francis de Sales, from Treatise on the Love of God




Painting:  Mary Hiester Reid, in US public domain due to age




To continue visiting the garden, click this line

In My Garden, A Cross of Roses

'Plant Jesus Christ
crucified
within your heart,
and all the crosses
of this world
will seem to you roses.'

St. Francis de Sales


















To continue visiting the garden, click this line

In My Inner Garden

While those in monasteries care for their summer plantings, I find myself asking:  what is the condition of my 'inner garden?'  

Has there been a blossoming of prayer?  

Is fruit being grown in the dark soil of suffering?  

Do I find weeds of worldliness and distraction?  

Am I feeling parched by aridity and drought?

Over the next few days, we'll stroll around the inner gardens.  I wonder what I'll find in the garden of my soul...... 

'The beginner must think of himself as setting out to make a garden in which the Lord is to take His delight, yet in soil most unfruitful and full of weeds.  His Majesty uproots the weeds and will set good plants in their stead.  We have now, by God’s help like good gardeners, to make these plants grow.  We must water them carefully, so that they may not perish, but may produce flowers which shall send forth great fragrance to give refreshment to this Lord of ours, so that he may often come into the garden to take his pleasure and his delight among these virtues.' (St. Teresa of Avila)

"O garden-dweller!  My friends are listening for your voice, let Me hear it!"  (Song of Songs 8:1)

photo on this post in public domain 




To continue visiting the garden, click this line 

 

In the Monastery Garden

The cloister garden is a place of refreshment.  Whether the monastery is snuggled amid rolling hills or surrounded by a bustling city, its garden is a peaceful oasis - a place where nuns or monks cherish and nurture the handiwork of God. 

In summer, cloister gardens are in full bloom.  Droughts alternate with downpours, weeds are continually battled, pests must be put to flight lest they harm delicate blossoms.  The pastels of spring have deepened, now, into darker shades.  It's a time of heat and heady fragrance, busy bees and fireflies and cicadas, crackles of thunder and balmy nights.

'Have good courage to cultivate this vineyard, contributing your little effort to the spiritual good of the souls that the Lord has reserved for Himself lest they bend their knees before Baal.. in the midst of a people that has unclean lips.  Do not be surprised if the fruits do not yet appear, because if you do the work of God patiently, your labor will not be in vain.'  (St. Francis de Sales)

Shall we visit a cloister garden?

A Monastery Garden Tour (with the Passionist Nuns)   

None Should Mow the Grass There   






Note to our e-mail subscribers:  this post contains a video.  To view that, click over to the blog.  

Ads on any videos I post are never chosen nor endorsed by me. You can usually click out of the ones across the bottom of the screen by clicking on the little "x" on the upper right inside the ad box

Photo at top of post by N Shuman 





For a look into our own inner gardens, click this line