We are quite convinced that the Lord’s favorite flowers must be daisies. He surely loves to repeat the shape in almost infinite variations! Over the course of the past year, we tried to catch them all on camera as they bloomed around the monastery and in our woods.

Today begins our second community retreat - all the Marthas of the first retreat get their chance for a little extra time at the Master’s feet as Marys. We’re sure to see them out marveling at the beauty of creation and praising the Creator! Please continue to pray for all of us that this may be a time rich in graces and refreshment of body, mind, and soul!

[St. Paul of the Cross] used to recommend greatly that that they practice during the day aspirations and short prayers towards God, taking their motive from what they heard or saw. “If, for example,” he used to say, “When you go into the garden you see the flowers, inquire a little from one of them, ‘Who are you?’ It will not answer you now, ‘I am a flower’ no, but it will say, ‘I am the voice; I am a preacher and I preach the might, the wisdom, the goodness, the beauty, the prudence of the great God’.”

-From the testimony of Fr. John Mary Cioni in the Process for the Beatification of St. Paul of the Cross