Showing posts with label Beauty of Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beauty of Christ. Show all posts

Friday, August 1, 2025

August


This was its promise, held to faithfully: 
The early morning sun came in this way 
Until the angle of its saffron beam
Between the curtains and the sofa lay, 

 And with its ochre* heat it spread across 
The village houses, and the nearby wood, 
Upon my bed and on my dampened pillow 
And to the corner where the bookcase stood. 

Then I recalled the reason why my pillow 
Had been so dampened by those tears that fell-
I'd dreamt I saw you coming one by one 
Across the wood to wish me your farewell. 
Marie Byars photography, Phoenix Arizona, Peoria Arizona, sunset
You came in ones and twos, a straggling crowd; 
Then suddenly someone mentioned a word: 
It was the sixth of August, by Old Style**, 
And the Transfiguration of Our Lord***. 

For from Mount Tabor*** usually this day 
There comes a light without a flame to shine
And autumn draws all eyes upon itself 
As clear and unmistaken as a sign.****

But you came forward through the tiny, stripped, 
The pauperly and trembling alder grove, 
Into the graveyard's coppice, russet-red*****
Which, like stamped gingerbread, lay there and glowed. 

 And with the silence of those high treetops 
Was neighbour only the imposing sky 
And in the echoed crowing of the cocks 
The distances and distances rang by: 

There in the churchyard underneath the trees, 
Like some surveyor from the government 
Death gazed on my pale face to estimate 
How large a grave would suit my measurement

All those who stood there could distinctly hear
A quiet voice emerge from where I lay: 
The voice was mine, my past; prophetic words 
That sounded now, unsullied by decay:

'Farewell, wonder of azure and of gold,
Surrounding the Transfiguration's power: 
Assuage now with a woman's last caress 
The bitterness of my predestined hour! 

'Farewell timeless expanse of passing years!
Farewell, woman who flung your challenge steeled 
Against the abyss of humiliations: 
For it is I who am your battlefield! 

'Farewell, you span of open wings outspread, 
The voluntary obstinacy of flight, 
O figure of the world revealed in speech, 
Creative genius, wonder-working might!'
--Boris Pasternak [author of Dr. Zhivago], 1890-1960

*ochre--  deep orange-y brown
**adjusted calendar:  Pope Gregory XIII adjusted the calendar in 1582.  Due to the way leap days had been inserted, there had been "seasonal creep."  About 11 days were taken out of the calendar, readjusting dates, and leap days were no longer inserted in years that are divisible by 100 (i.e. 1700), unless they are also divisible by 400 (i.e. 2000).  
   Protestant-dominated countries were slower to adopt the calendar. Great Britain and its colonies adopted the Gregorian Calendar in September of 1752.  You may have heard that Washington's birthday 'moved'?
   Eastern Orthodox countries were even slower to adopt the new calendar, which most did for purely civic, non-church purposes. Within Orthodox churches, the 'old calendar' is often still used.
***Feast of Transfiguration/Mt. Tabor.  Eastern Orthodox churches celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration on the 6th of August.  Lutherans used to use this date, also. Transfiguration is the event where Jesus shone forth brightly on a mountaintop.  Many Christian traditions suggested this was Mt. Tabor.
      Roman Catholics set the date as the last Sunday before Lent. This is when Lutherans now celebrate it. This makes sense, as the event was one of the final ones before Jesus travelled to Jerusalem to give His life for the world.
****August giving way to autumn.  Not really a factor where I currently live but it is in many places.
*****russet red coppice--  russet is a dark-brown color with reddish or even orange tinges; a coppice is an area where trees have been cut down to stumps, often to encourage the growth of other plants or trees

Saturday, May 1, 2021

"The Desert Shall Blossom"

 In Isaiah 35:1, the Bible says:

"The wilderness and parched land will be glad:

And the desert-plain will rejoice and blossom."

    These passages originally spoke of a spiritual blossoming with Messiah's coming.  Secondarily, they hint at the perfection of the natural world in the recreation to come in heaven.

    We are seeing a somewhat more literal version of this in our own backyard this spring.  This is a mixture of area wildflowers and cultivars from elsewhere.  Enjoy! 

Common Poppy



Shirley Poppy?



Larkspur & California Poppy     
 

African Daisies

Phlox & Wood Sorrel (one of many things called "shamrock")

Snap Dragons
Globe Mallow & Saltbrush 


Prickly Pear

Drought Resistant Pine (Canary Island Pine?)



  

Black eye Susan with Bachelor's Button
 

 


Black-eye Susans are my favorite flower.  They are native to the Midwestern US.  After many years of trying, I got them (with God's help!) to come up here last year. The above photo was about to open when I first posted. Now it has, with more to come.  Below is a link to a poem I wrote about Black-eye Susans.

Black-Eyed Susan (poem) 


Tuesday, October 1, 2019

I Will Praise the Lord at All Times


Winter has a joy for me,
While the Saviour's charms I read,
Lowly, meek, from blemish free,
In the snowdrop's pensive head.















Spring returns, and brings along
Life-invigorating suns:
Hark! the turtle's plaintive song 

Seems to speak His dying groans!

Summer has a thousand charms,
All expressive of His worth;
'Tis His sun that lights and warms,
His the air that cools the earth.


What! has autumn left to say
Nothing of a Saviour's grace?
Yes, the beams of milder day
Tell me of his smiling face.





















Light appears with early dawn,
While the sun makes haste to rise;
See His bleeding beauties drawn
On the blushes of the skies.


Evening with a silent pace,
Slowly moving in the west,
Shews an emblem of His grace,
Points to an eternal rest. 


--William Cowper, ~1772; Olney, England

Saturday, December 1, 2018

The Word

[repost]


THE WORD "became Flesh and so-journed among us..."
(John 1:14)

THE WORD was spoken at Creation, 
 And all things came into being.
In the beginning,
All Nature resounded with THE joyous WORD.

THE WORD was recorded by the prophets,
God's Holy Men of old.

"In the beginning was THE WORD,
And THE WORD was with GOD,
and THE WORD was God.
This One was with God in the beginning." (John 1:1-2)


THE WORD 
was spoken to the Virgin Mary,
And she received THE WORD by the Spirit's power.
She conceived and bore a Son,
For in the fullness of time, 
God sent forth His Son to be born of a woman.
(Galatians 4:4)
She wrapped Him in Infant's clothes
And laid Him in a feed trough,
For there was no place else for Him.

Shepherds heard THE WORD from Angels,

So they themselves came to examine THE WORD for themselves.
They gave thanks for THE WORD
     and spoke THE WORD to others.

Wise men came to view THE WORD,
Led by their star's bright light.
THE WORD gives men wisdom,
For THE WORD is, itself, WISDOM. (Proverbs 8)
The Wise Men gave THE WORD gifts,
But THE WORD gave them greater gifts.
Though they left Bethlehem,
THE WORD never left them.

THE WORD has been handed down now
Through countless number of ages.
But THE WORD still stays among us,
Speaking as plainly to people as ever.
So, we, too, have seen His glory,
The glory of the One-and-Only-Begotten from the Father,
Full of grace and truth. . .
"Your WORD is TRUTH." (John 17:17)


THE WORD still illumines the walk of the saints,
As it has from time immemorial. . .
"Your WORD is a Lamp unto my feet
And a Light unto my path." (Psalm 119:105)

THE WORD brightens and cheers the walk
And leads us to Himself.


---C. Marie Byars, 1989
St. Louis, Graduate School
(original Bible Translations)