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




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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   






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Photo at top of post by N Shuman 





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