Three random sentences from nature... captivated:
The tears of repentance (April showers), that bring spiritual meditations (May flowers) that beautify and make fragrant the garden of our heart have turned into snow today. A divine gift, no doubt, to cool the fire of temptations and a cleansing of our sins. A white garment for the inner man (tree), and a making cottony, that is, smooth and easy the ways of virtue (blades of grass).
The tempter is blowing today and the passions (leaves) of our flesh (neighboring tree) are littering the thoughts of our mind (yard), but our attention, desire and love for God, the spiritual windows to heaven, are all active (open) in us (the house), and the gentle wind of the Holy Spirit makes everything wonderful.
Even after our spiritual regeneration, we somehow still harbor feelings of greed and lust in our soul. Just like spiders set traps and pray after other bugs and even other spiders, the greedy person is always plotting ways or more aptly, weaving webs, to cheat and exploit his fellow man. And just like stink bugs when touched release a pungent odor from their abdomen so does the body when pampered, releases the stench of fornication. These feelings we catch with the help of abstinence and patient endurance in sufferings. This is the cup that Christ drunk as a type for us to imitate. Then with outward confession to our pastor, priest or spiritual father (and to God of course), we release or rather expel them from our soul until it grows and becomes a habit or if you wish character (Rom. 5:4), this is the child.
In another sense, spider and stink bugs are the powers of imagination* and sense perception** that are considered negatively when occupied with material things (the house). They are positively captured by the spiritual mind (cup), and released outdoors when retasked for the contemplation of spiritual realities (the outdoors). On a sidenote, this interpetation is self-descriptive, i.e. the process we followed to interpret the meaning, is also the meaning.
______________
* What other power is able to weave intricate thoughts and images like the imagination?
** Stink bugs’ scientific name is Pentatomidae which is Greek for five-sectioned an apt symbol for the five senses.
The tears of repentance (April showers), that bring spiritual meditations (May flowers) that beautify and make fragrant the garden of our heart have turned into snow today. A divine gift, no doubt, to cool the fire of temptations and a cleansing of our sins. A white garment for the inner man (tree), and a making cottony, that is, smooth and easy the ways of virtue (blades of grass).
The tempter is blowing today and the passions (leaves) of our flesh (neighboring tree) are littering the thoughts of our mind (yard), but our attention, desire and love for God, the spiritual windows to heaven, are all active (open) in us (the house), and the gentle wind of the Holy Spirit makes everything wonderful.
Even after our spiritual regeneration, we somehow still harbor feelings of greed and lust in our soul. Just like spiders set traps and pray after other bugs and even other spiders, the greedy person is always plotting ways or more aptly, weaving webs, to cheat and exploit his fellow man. And just like stink bugs when touched release a pungent odor from their abdomen so does the body when pampered, releases the stench of fornication. These feelings we catch with the help of abstinence and patient endurance in sufferings. This is the cup that Christ drunk as a type for us to imitate. Then with outward confession to our pastor, priest or spiritual father (and to God of course), we release or rather expel them from our soul until it grows and becomes a habit or if you wish character (Rom. 5:4), this is the child.
In another sense, spider and stink bugs are the powers of imagination* and sense perception** that are considered negatively when occupied with material things (the house). They are positively captured by the spiritual mind (cup), and released outdoors when retasked for the contemplation of spiritual realities (the outdoors). On a sidenote, this interpetation is self-descriptive, i.e. the process we followed to interpret the meaning, is also the meaning.
______________
* What other power is able to weave intricate thoughts and images like the imagination?
** Stink bugs’ scientific name is Pentatomidae which is Greek for five-sectioned an apt symbol for the five senses.
