May 13 – Spring is Sprung!

It is time for a little “abbatial imagining,” once again.

Let’s imagine that we are in the middle of our fifth month in the abbey. We came in at the start of the year, we learned our way around in the cold of winter, while the days were short and the Divine Office was hyphenated with coughs and sneezes.

Now the early spring rains have greened all the trees and shrubs and brought flower stalks to the ready and roses into bloom. The abbey is at its freshest; the professed nuns are full of after-Easter readiness toward the duties and delights of spring and summer.

To the new postulants however, the craving for “down time” is nearly endemic! The Abbess sees and knows, and she prescribes walks around the cloister garden. She schedules extra work details among the rows of new vegetable sprouts. The Choir Mistress introduces a selection of ancient motets to be made ready and performed at the end of summer concert.

All the while, those who have been inside the Abbey walls for many spring seasons know that nothing “works” as well as the work of devotion; nothing works as well as not leaving and fitting the heart to devotion. “Movie night” does not really accomplish as much in the Abbey as every night in the nearness of the Father and of those who have chosen His Presence as the enduring “season” of life and fullness.


"Ready to Burst!"
photo by Kerry