I stopped in at Klein Nursery on my way home last week to pick up 4 more blueberry plants and a purple lilac. The owners sound German or Dutch and love what they do.
As she hefted a shrub from one spot to another, she brought it to my nose so I could appreciate its fragrance. White blossomed like the Mock Orange but sweeter, effecting a mood of calm serenity. There is nothing quite like a fragrance to elicit memory and for me, the fragrance is a reminder of garden walks through central Italy with the melodic cadence of language and song amidst scent.
Catherine of Siena in her 14th century treatise on prayer entitled, The Dialogue, writes, “Oh, how lovely, how lovely beyond all loveliness, is the dwelling place of the soul’s perfect union with me! She gives forth a fragrance to the whole wide world, the fruit of constant humble prayers.”
I wondered about those prayers. What happens in the union with God that evokes such joy for Catherine?
She goes on, “In everything they find joy and the fragrance of the rose. This is true not only of good things; even when they see something that is clearly sinful they do not pass judgment, but rather feel a holy and genuine compassion, praying for the sinner and saying with perfect humility, ‘Today it is your turn; tomorrow it will be mine unless divine grace holds me up.'” Here is a sign of love well-ordered. And a gift of grace that exudes the fragrant burial spices of Christ crucified and resurrected.
On Annunciation Monday, we receive a fragrant reminder of Easter and the gift of sheer grace that grows from the fruit of constant humble prayers. It is the fragrant fruit of holy compassion.
