A friendly face as spring officially kicks off

  • mary-of-egypt-3_detail.jpgCan a late snow­fall ever be a rea­son to smile?

    We got a lit­tle saber-rattling from win­ter, and on the day of the spring sol­stice, no less. But it turned out to be just an empty threat. A quick nasty dump of snow and sleet hap­pened on Fri­day night, and the weather reporters were putting on their seri­ous face and telling us about extreme weather and crip­pling storms. (Do you get the impres­sion the weather peo­ple just love the sound of those words?)

    By mid­day Sat­ur­day,  we had about four inches of snow, with drifts up to a foot. But then, like a big dumb dog that runs up to you look­ing sav­age and then just wags its tail and looks stu­pid, the weather sort of broke into a silly grin. It’s in the 50s now and a lot of the snow is already gone. The big clumpy snow­fall on the trees and bushes is melt­ing so fast that the drip­ping and chunk­ing sounds are ongo­ing. Migrat­ing robins must be pass­ing through, because groups of them seem to be every­where, and they and the other birds are break­ing into song when­ever they have a spare minute.

    It’s so good to see these reminders of the chang­ing sea­sons. I like some of the win­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties to stay indoors and get cozy — I’m just that lazy and book­ish — but it’s a fine thing to feel the sun warm­ing your face and see the cro­cuses show­ing col­or­ful blooms above the snow.

    mary-of-egypt-3.jpgFine weather in which to cel­e­brate my patron saint, St. Mary of Egypt. Good to be reminded of why she is com­mem­o­rated on the fifth Sun­day of Lent. The woman whose way into the church was once blocked by unseen hands, who endured a self-imposed penance for over 40 years in the desert to purify her­self from her pas­sions and acquire virtues. She now stands at the point in Lent when I usu­ally find that my spir­its start to flag, and/or my atten­tion starts to waver. Almost done, might as well slack off, right? Almost done in, I’ll never make it, right?

    I feel a lit­tle guilty that I don’t have the same kin­ship with St. Gre­gory Pala­mas or St. John of the Lad­der. A bet­ter woman would have made sure she knew those saints well, too. But in any case, I’m so glad to see another Sun­day of St. Mary of Egypt — hope every­one else is as well.

    (BTW, HERE’S the story as it came to us in the 6th cen­tury, in case any­one doesn’t know or wants a quick review.)


    Related posts:

    1. Late win­ter, early spring
    2. St. Mary of Egypt
    3. No foolin’
    4. St. Mary of Egypt Sun­day ’09
    5. Cold as a bat’s underpants

    March 21st, 2010 | Grace | 2 Comments |

2 Responses and Counting...

  • s-p 03.21.2010

    St. Mary is a dou­ble edged sword. She’s an “in my face” reminder of what a slacker I am, and yes and encour­age­ment to buckle down and fin­ish the race, but the real­ity is, I’m not her. sigh. And I hope we don’t have a late “win­ter day”, we planted toma­toes two weeks ago.

  • Mimi

    Happy, Happy Patron Saint Day!

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