One of these days I’m going to take that fancy camera of ours and spend a few hours simply wandering around our home parish, the Basilica of St. John in Des Moines. For now, the iPhone has done a fine job capturing her beauty, and here’s a few “what she wore” on Divine Mercy Sunday photos I grabbed from my phone. I just so happened to cantor this morning, my very first time at the Basilica (yay!), and what a treat to sit near the altar with all those flowers standing tall in full bloom. The church smelled divine.
We donated one of those Easter lilies in my father’s memory. Last week I was curious how and why the tradition of Easter lilies began, so I searched the Internet and among the information I found was this beautiful poem on one person’s interpretation of the symbolism of Easter lilies. I’ll leave you with her thoughts today. Happy Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday!
Easter morn with lilies fair
Fills the church with perfumes rare,
As their clouds of incense rise,
Sweetest offerings to the skies.
Stately lilies pure and white
Flooding darkness with their light,
Bloom and sorrow drifts away,
On this holy hallow’d day.
Easter Lilies bending low
in the golden afterglow,
Bear a message from the sod
To the heavenly towers of God.”
– Louise Lewin Matthews