Late winter, early spring

  • Yes­ter­day was almost too bright to look at, but today the sky is over­cast again. That’s the way it goes at this time of year. This morn­ing I heard the insis­tent, liq­uid song of a car­di­nal out­side the win­dow, but today the birds are silent except for the occa­sional bleat­ing of migrat­ing geese. Spring is com­ing, that’s for sure. But win­ter isn’t through yet.

    I’d like to think that it was early March when the psalmist wrote in Psalm 147:


    Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
    Praise your God, O Zion! …
    He sends out His com­mand to the earth;
    His word runs very swiftly.
    He gives snow like wool;
    He scat­ters the frost like ashes;
    He casts out His hail like morsels;
    Who can stand before His win­ter?
    He sends out His word and melts them;
    He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow.

    .And I’d like to think that St. John of Kro­n­stadt was enjoy­ing a spring day when he wrote some­thing I read today in “My Life in Christ”:

    I feel bright, warm, and tran­quil, when I turn with my whole soul to the men­tal sun, the Sun of right­eous­ness, to Christ my God. Then the ice of my heart melts, all its dark­ness, impu­rity, and cor­rup­tion, van­ish; spir­i­tual death flees, heav­enly life reigns in its stead, and noth­ing earthly occu­pies me any longer.

    Just as well that Lent begins at this time. Maybe it can help melt the ice of my heart as well.


    Related posts:

    1. Spring?
    2. And win­ter makes that sloooow right turn
    3. Feel the truth
    4. Happy Thanks­giv­ing — in two tries
    5. They see your heart

    March 5th, 2008 | Grace | 3 Comments |

3 Responses and Counting...

  • Mimi 03.05.2008

    Amen. I am really struck by Spring this year, it’s so bril­liant and burst­ing forth and my heart can be so icy so it’s a good thing Lent is coming!

  • Rui

    Your writ­ing is beau­ti­ful. “Maybe it can help melt the ice of my heart as well.” Could you please let me know the autor and edi­tion of “My Life in Christ”?

  • Grace

    Many thanks for the kind words!

    As for “My Life in Christ,” I’m always ready to gush about this book. I’ve got a long post about it HERE, but here’s the short ver­sion: It’s a vol­ume of hun­dreds of short daily thoughts and reflec­tions by St. John of Kro­n­stadt, a mar­ried parish priest liv­ing in a small vil­lage in Rus­sia. He lived rel­a­tively recently ( 1829–1908 ) so his strug­gles and obser­va­tions seem very con­tem­po­rary. But he also had a deep devo­tion to Ortho­dox truth, and so his words are time­less and profound.

    The book in Eng­lish is out of print. But there is an abridged col­lec­tion of these reflec­tions called “Spir­i­tual Coun­sels” that’s very good — link HERE. Or, if you want to get a used copy of the unabridged “My Life in Christ” (which is what I did), here’s one via Ama­zon — link HERE.

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