The Time of Singing Has Come

Magnolia Blossom Opening
(Click to view full size photo.)

Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
for lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtle-dove
is heard in our land.

(Song of Songs 2:10-12)

Flowery Lent

Flowers are everywhere. In fact the azaleas and the dogwoods have just about finished blooming. Right now our fringe tree is splendid. The showy abundance doesn't seem quite lenten. However, I am reminded of one of the liturgical prayers that speaks of "the joyful season" of Lent.

Each year, you give us this joyful season
when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery
with mind and heart renewed.
(Lenten Preface)

Starry Night

Starry Night with Branches
(Click on image to view full size.)

Reading

Reading Child in Bubble
(Click image to view full size.)

Oh, the heights to which you will go!

Small Pleasures

Teacup in Sunlight
(Click on image to view full size.)

Fine wine has its place.
But thanks be to God for simple pleasures.

Angels

Do not neglect to show
hospitality to strangers,
for thereby some have entertained
angels unawares.

(Hebrews 13:2)

(Click on images to
view full size.)

[God] will give his angels
charge of you
to guard you
in all your ways.

(Psalm 91:11)

But the Word of Our God...

Old Church on Highway 16
(Click on photo to view full-sized.)

"...but the word of our God will stand forever."
Isaiah 40:8

Winter Sunset
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While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.
(Genesis 8:22)

God has made everything beautiful in its time...
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)

 

Glory Ever Near

Marbled Christmas Balls
(Click on photo to view full-size picture.)

Is Christmas really over at midnight on December 26? According to the Catholic calendar, the Christmas season is just beginning. And whether we find ourselves in the official Christmas season or not, God's glory is still all around us — and within us.

Christmas Amaryllis
(digitally enhanced)
Click on image to view full-sized.

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad:
the desert shall rejoice and blossom...
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.
(Isaiah 35:1-2)

 

Let Us Walk in the Light

Christmas Tree Closeup
(Click on image to view full-size photo.)

They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord! (Isaiah 2:3-5)

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!

Advent Wreath Seen from Above
(Click on image to view full-sized photo.)

I will turn the darkness before them into light,
the rough places into level ground.
Isaiah 42:16

Faithful Seasons

(Click on photo to view full-sized.)

Fall arrives slowly in the deep South, but arrive it does eventually. The proof is this collection of leaves near our house, with an impressive giant sycamore leaf dwarfing the rest.

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and
winter, day and night, shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22)

Gazing

Sunset Gazers
(Click on image to view full-size photo.)

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up,

my eyes are not raised too high;

I do not occupy myself with things

too great and too marvellous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a weaned child with its mother;

like a child that is quieted is my soul.
O Israel, hope in the LORD

from this time forth and for evermore.

(Psalm 131)

Full Moon and Spanish Moss

October 2005 Full Moon
(Click on image to view full-size photo.)

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night,"
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
(Psalm 139:11-12)

Cypress in Fall

Suwannee River at White Springs, Florida
November 2005
(Click on image to view full-size photo.)

This blog will use photographs to express, in a stammering human way, the beauty and incomprehensibility of God. This is a beauty both seen and unseen, as the dark waters of rivers where cypress trees grow reflect the sky and at the same time hide what is in the depths.