Newsletter

Dear Friends,

We stretched reality a wee bit on this one. In our recent publication of Journey and the Joy, we needed a dramatic center page that would depict new life and the resurrection. So, prompted by radical creativity, we purchased a crocus from the grocery store, put it in the snow and took a picture.

But now our guilt is relieved. The crocus and the invincible viola have appeared and so much more, including the faithful pheasant in the wind break. Perhaps it is the thirst and the seasons of the human heart that help the outside awakenings happen.

When the weather turned warm in March, we tilled the garden and had animated conversations on what we would like to plant. We usually plant tomatoes. This season, however, our newest member informs us that she will be planting "to-mah-toes." (The spell check had fun with this one.) At any rate we plan to follow the Indian proverb: " First bury the root deeply. The plant grows tall by itself."

We have been more or less faithful to not using the "A" word during Lent. Formerly, there was an old monastic custom in which the "alleluia" was buried on Ash Wednesday and then somehow resurrected in all its glory on Easter. There is one thing we know for sure. It is very difficult keeping a good alleluia down! It just keeps popping out.

One of our friends wrote and told us that "Charlie Brown lives!" To keep our prayer real, we sometimes meditate on Charlie Brown and even the Family Circus. The creative ones among us dream of writing our own comic strip someday for remunerative work. We especially like the one about not trying to warm up your chicken nuggets in the dryer. We would even enjoy cartooning the call we received from Sears requesting to speak with "Mrs. Monastery."

When we light the new Easter fire under our crisp and darkened skies on Holy Saturday, know that we will be praying for you in a special way. Each little spark will be a prayer. The saints tell us that we can never trust God too much. Dear friend, may that kind of trust find deep roots in you, and may the plant grow very tall. Thank you for being in our lives.

Bearing in its heart a deep yearning for God, it never gives up

and is never discouraged. Instead it profits from every situation.