2012 Calendar: April

The two magnolia trees in our garden are in full flower, so choosing this month's photo wasn't difficult! They are abundantly beautiful, especially from a distance. From afar, brown, drooping or fallen petals are somehow impossible to see: up close, though, you can see each blossom's fragility, and the effects of harsh winds and heavy frosts. Its beauty is ephemeral - each flower is only in its prime for a few brief days, before it too goes the way of all living things. Yes, it's abundantly, gloriously beautiful, but also delicately, briefly so.

This is also the month when - in a few days' time - we will recall Christ's passion, death and resurrection. Here we are also presented with an abundance - of love, but also great fragility and vulnerability. We have the paradox of divine strength and beauty allowing itself to be made weak and disfigured. And so this month's quote, from II Corinthians, seems an appropriate continuation of this theme. Paul writes that he has begged God to relieve him of a "thorn", and God replies...

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness (12.9)

Have a blessed Holy Week, one and all