Genesis 4:8-10

“And Cain said to Abel his brother: ‘Let us go forth abroad.’ And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him. And the Lord said to Cain: ‘Where is thy brother Abel?’ And he answered, ‘I know not: am I my brother’s keeper?’ And he said to him: ‘What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to me from the earth.’”

You can only give the love that you receive. If you know not the love of God, how can you love with His love in turn? Cain turned away from love, stifling the voice of grace: “Extinguish not the spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19), turning instead to the voice of hate. O Cain, love knocked at your door, and you slammed it in His face, instead turning with a cold heart against a brother who acted in accord with love’s ways: “If he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden my self from him. But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar, who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent” (Psalm 54:13-15). Ah, when love knocks, always follow His voice; to turn from Him is to reject Him, for here you can see the Lord Jesus in two ways: First in the voice of compassion, reaching out to Cain to bring him back to friendship with God, second in the figure of Abel, who is slain by one that does not love. When you turn from the sweet voice of the Spirit, you heed the malicious voice of Cain against Jesus. But o the infinite mercy of God! How many times do you turn from your sweet Lord every day, and how often does the voice of the Holy Spirit draw you back? “Father, forgive them, for they know now that they do” (Luke 23:34). For your Beloved looks into your lowliness and sees that “a just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again” (Proverbs 24:16). How many movements away from the love of Jesus does every person commit, and how lovingly does He come back, saying, “Where is thy brother, Jesus?” Will you say that you do not know, or will you run to your Abba, saying that Jesus is in your heart, and you in His? “In in them, and thou in me” (John 17:23). O Theophila, o spouse of God, o dove of Jesus, you have spilled the blood of Jesus by sin, and He has reconciled you to Himself: “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Romans 5:10). He has overcome your slaying of Him with love. His blood cries out from the ground of Calvary, saying, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:59). Run to your Jesus with eagerness then, “We will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments” (Song 1:3), for the merciful love of God surpasses all understanding, and no matter what you have laid upon your Beloved, He will bear it for love of you. “If God be for us, who is against us? He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32). It is a debt you can never repay, but you can LOVE back with the love that has been given to you: “In this is love: not as though we had loved God, but because he hath first loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). What can you give back to Jesus but the heart that He has freed? What can you possibly return to Him but your entire self? For you are the desire of His heart, no matter how small your gift may seem, He will receive you with joy and thanksgiving: “And when he had commanded the multitude to sit down upon the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake” (Matthew 14:19). He has given you His whole Heart, overcoming the grave evils you have rendered to Him. Give yourself the same, that you may say with joy: “I to my beloved, and his turning is towards me” (Song 7:10).

Genesis 4:1-7

“And Adam knew Eve his wife: who conceived and brought forth Cain, saying: ‘I have gotten a man through God.’ And again she brought forth his brother Abel. And Abel was a shepherd, and Cain a husbandman. And it came to pass after many days, that Cain offered, of the fruits of the earth, gifts to the Lord. Abel also offered of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat: and the Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offerings. But to Cain and his offerings he had no respect: and Cain was exceedingly angry, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said to him: ‘Why art thou angry? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou do well, shalt thou not receive? But if ill, shall not sin forthwith be present at the door? But the lust thereof shall be under thee, and thou shalt have dominion over it.’”

Adam “knew” Eve, an important term that expresses that union is something far deeper than physical, it imprints itself upon the soul. Love leaves an impress from one to the other, both in the marital act and in simple acts of love. There is a stamp that love leaves on the one loved, like a seal imprinted on wax, and the love of God is no different: “Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm” (Song 8:6). It is important, then, to keep your soul warm with love, that the Lord may leave His impress upon you. Now this is best done through frequent reception of the sacraments and the reading of Sacred Scripture and prayer, for the Canticle says: “My soul melted when he spoke” (Song 5:6). It is by these means that He united His Sacred Heart to yours, and then talks to you as a husband to a bride. This will in turn lead to the bringing forth of spiritual children by love. All children, spiritual and biological, are gifts from God, and the dignity of having children is here extolled. This is important because these children grow into the people you get to encounter on a day-to-day basis, each one a gift handed to you by the Most High, that you may see His image in yet another treasure of His. Adam and Eve, joyful at the gift of Cain, then conceive Abel, showing that a loving gratitude for the gifts of the Lord results only in more gifts, for He delights in a grateful heart. Now, as for the sacrifices of Cain and Abel, God does not reject the offerings of fruit on the part of Cain, for grain offerings are received “as a most sweet savour to the Lord” (Leviticus 2:2). Rather, the Lord looks unfavorably on Cain and his offering, for he had no love of God in his heart: “A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 50:19). How God longs to pour out love, grace, and mercy upon each of His children, to cover them with affection as the waves cover the sand! Run to Him with a sincere heart, seeking to cover Him in kisses in return for all your imperfect love, that you may become an alive, burning offering before the altar of God: “And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire and was not burnt” (Exodus 3:2); “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29), that will consume all that isn’t love in the roaring fire of His own love: “And I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean purge away thy dross, and I will take away all thy tin” (Isaias 1:25). God then turns to the enraged Cain, and with love speaks to Him: “A mild answer breaketh wrath” (Proverbs 15:1). O tenderness of God! What a soft, loving Father, that sees one of His children despising Him, offering Him halfhearted praise, and comes to encourage Him to a better way: “For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth: and as a father in the son he pleaseth himself” (Proverbs 3:12). He seeks to lift the sadness of Cain, and show him His approval, and to this end He gives him the prompting to love well and be strong. Bad love is chastised and rebuked, with the admonition that sin can be overcome. It is good to think on this both when you stumble or fall, as well as when you are reading the Scriptures and are corrected. Rather than being overcome with guilt or frustration, think of the gentle voice of Jesus, coming from a smiling face, saying, “Get back up, keep running, sin has not mastered you.” He will give you the grace to be a saint, if you will turn to Him with love at every opportunity, ever renewing your heart to be a sweeter, ever more loving offering to God.

Genesis 3:20-24

“And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: because she was the mother of all the living. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife, garments of skins, and clothed them. And he said: ‘Behold Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil: now, therefore, lest perhaps he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.’ And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was taken. And he cast out Adam; and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

Eve, meaning “life,” was the name given to the wife, for from her life, though broken, would proceed. God then looks upon the deep shame that Adam and Eve feel with love and compassion, for they feared the punishment of death, but He in his goodness gives them garments of skins to cover their shame. They had cast off the garments of purity, understanding, covenantal communion with God and all the benefits therein. In turn, they receive the covering of beasts, showing sin to be more akin to animals than to the dignity of human beings. Think on these things, that you were created in the image of God, made for love and innocence, and to turn from Him is to make oneself like an animal, not knowing good from bad: “And man when he was in honour did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is become like to them” (Psalm 48:13). Now, Adam and Eve were created knowing the good: “God made man right” (Ecclesiastes 7:30), and they enjoyed this same good. The tree of knowledge of good and evil, then, brought forth only knowledge of evil, and that there could be an absence of goodness in things. They came to know this evil through firsthand experience, through shame, suffering, and sins against each other. Man was not created to live in such a way. You were made for love and joy, not for sorrow and sin. An immortal life in a fallen world is a miserable life, and so man is taken from the tree of life and the return to it is guarded by the cherubim and a sword of fire. Now, Theophila, what this means for you and your soul is that Jesus has reopened paradise for you, with His Cross becoming the tree of life, for your immortal life was redeemed upon it. By His saving Passion, your soul can once again enjoy harmony with God, that you may walk with Him at all times, living your life in relationship to God. All labor becomes joyful when done with love, all of nature becomes an adornment of beauty to your love story when you realize you are in one, every encounter with another person becomes innocent when your innocence is restored. However, the path to enjoying this perpetually, both mystically in this life and perfectly in the next, is through the angelic call to praise God in your soul: “Be ye filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18-19); “Upon it stood the seraphims… And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory” (Isaias 6:2-3). The flaming sword is the crucible of suffering that awaits all, but in particular those who wish to pursue the love of God: “You shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations: That the trial of your faith (much more precious than gold which is tried by fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7). The purifying sword of trials awaits all that would approach paradise, but love will overcome it, and come to the sight of God: “And all mount Sinai was on a smoke: because the Lord was come down upon it in fire, and the smoke arose from it as out of a furnace: and all the mount was terrible. And the sound of the trumpet grew by degrees louder and louder, and was drawn out to a greater length: Moses spoke, and God answered him. And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai” (Exodus 19:18-20). Even when you must reach through thorns for the sake of love, keep the songs of love and praise in your heart, that love may reverberate through your soul always, with the love of God never leaving your lips or your heart, that love and joy may overcome all the adversities of this present life.

Genesis 3:16-19

“To the woman also he said: ‘I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband’s power, and he shall have dominion over thee.’ And to Adam he said: ‘Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.’”

God does not curse Adam and Eve. He is far too gentle for that. Rather, he sees their present pitiable state of sin, and begins to set the remedy. Suffering becomes the consequence of sin, with the pains of childbirth and the necessity of labor for one’s family putting a sort of cloud upon the pleasures of the flesh. Nature begins to turn against man, labor becomes hard, the earth becomes barren. While this, to the sinful person, can serve as a reminder of sin: “For the wicked that denied to know thee, were scourged by the strength of thy arm, being persecuted by strange waters, and hail, and rain, and consumed by fire” (Wisdom 16:16), the primary purpose of the punishment of suffering is to make you realize that there is more to life than just this world. Every joy in this life has a counterweight to it: “All things are hard: man cannot explain them by word” (Ecclesiastes 1:8). Trials, sorrows, and difficulties fall upon all, both the just and the unjust, that the sinful man may know that there is more to life than this present one, opportunities for virtue and the exercise of the love of neighbor may come about, and Jesus, by His Cross, has made suffering itself become an act of love. The pains of childbirth symbolize this in a particular way, showing that the grave trials that one endures will end with the joy of love: “When the Lord brought back the captivity of Sion, we became like men comforted. Then was our mouth filled with gladness, and our tongue with joy” (Psalm 125:1-2). Your home is heaven, your love is Christ, for He is the only one that can give you perfect love: “As apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons” (Song 2:3). If you look to be loved in the exact way that you need by others, you will walk away empty, for all the justice actions of man carry with them something tainted due to his fallen nature. No, your duty is not to be loved but to love, and in bringing forth spiritual children in this manner, you will encounter the labor pains here mentioned. You, as a bride of Christ, are to be subject to your Divine Head, obeying Him with a loving heart, knowing that His love is poured out upon you as you heed Him: “If you shall keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father’s commandments, and do abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be filled” (John 15:10-11). His commands are extreme to one that possesses a cold heart, working for himself, but to the selfless, loving heart, they are chains of gold: “For in [wisdom] is the beauty of life, and her bands are a healthful binding. Thou shalt put her on as a robe of glory, and thou shalt set her upon thee as a crown of joy” (Ecclesiasticus 6:31-32); “We will make thee chains of gold, inlaid with silver” (Song 1:10). The sentence upon Adam, that his labor which was previously prescribed is now toilsome and oftentimes useless, is also meant to lead you to heavenly things. Your work will not remain, it passes quickly with time; “There is no remembrance of former things: nor indeed of those things which hereafter are to come, shall there be any remembrance with them that shall be in the latter end” (Ecclesiastes 1:11). Much of it will be pointless, even spiritual work falls on deaf ears: “Speak not in the ears of fools: because they will despise the instruction of thy speech” (Proverbs 23:9), with much time spent bearing little fruit. This is to keep you detached from your work, that you may do what you have a mind to do with a joyful, loving heart: “And I have found that nothing is better than for a man to rejoice in his work, and that this is his portion” (Ecclesiastes 3:22). It is not in the work that you do but the love with which you do it, applying your heart to your every action and filling it with love. For when you return to earth, you will be judged solely on the love with which you lived, not on your accomplishments, your learning, your perceived spiritual fruit, the number of prayers you did, or the arguments you won. All things fade as a result of sin, nothing in life is perfect. Instead, exchange your heart for the Sacred Heart: “My son, give my thy heart,” that you may instead burn with the fire of Jesus’ Heart, and “let thy eyes keep my ways” (Proverbs 23:26) that you may always do what is pleasing to Him. This is to live on love, and to live as man was originally intended to live.

Genesis 3:14-15

“And the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.’”

God, in His love and compassion, does not begin by rebuking Adam and Eve, who stand trembling before divine justice. He turns to the snake, the ancient serpent, and pronounces the judgment upon him. O foul beast, you who were so magnificent upon the angels, you have been reduced to a place lower than animals. Cows have a greater dignity than you, because you who were supposed to lead the minds of men to the things of heaven have caused them to turn from God to earthly knowledge. He cannot repent due to his angelic nature, and all the faults of creation are heaped upon him, thus he will be trampled into the dirt. Thus, you should have no fear, o dear Theophila, of the ways of the enemy. His face is rubbed in the dirt, and the villain of your love story has already seen his humiliating defeat: “I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven” (Luke 10:18). The demons are outside the scope of charity, and can be prayed against with true fervor: “Do to them as thou didst to Madian and to Sisara: as to Jabin at the brook of Cisson. Who perished at Endor: and became as dung for the earth” (Psalm 82:10-11). Mankind is set to war against demons, between the seed of the serpent, that is those that do evil, and the seed of Eve, which is forecasted to be Jesus, Mary, and those that follow them on the path of love. As for you specifically, Theophila, the victory of your love is assured: “Thy neck,” that is, your bond to your divine Head, “is as the tower of David, which is built with bulwarks: a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armour of valiant men” (Song 4:4). Because of the presence of Jesus in your soul, it is given you to trample demons: “Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon” (Psalm 90:13). They can only writhe in the dirt beneath the love in you. All he can do is lie in wait for your heel, thus St. Paul exhorts you to stand with “your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15), that you may be immune from the fangs of the serpent. For Christ defeated the enemy by the words of the Scriptures, and He is your model. It is by bringing the words of the Lord to mind with love that pushes back the temptations of the enemy, be they to lust, avarice, despair, foolishness, anger, or a belief that God doesn’t love you. It is by the words of God that you can walk upon the heads of demons without fear, for their poison cannot sink in where love has given you strength, and where His words are the sword in your mouth: “And from his mouth came out a sharp two edged sword” (Apocalypse 1:16), which is your greatest weapon against your foe.

Genesis 3:8-13

“And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise at the afternoon air, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradises. And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: ‘Where art thou?’ And he said: ‘I heard thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ And he said to him: ‘And who hath told thee that thou wast naked, but that thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?’ And Adam said: ‘The woman, whom thou gavest me to be my companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat.’ And the Lord God said to the woman: ‘Why hast thou done this?’ And she answered: ‘The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.’”

God’s intimacy is always present. See that He walks through paradise, a familiar presence to Adam and Eve, and such should be your relationship with God. Is not an arrangement of service, or a gathering of yourself to pray at certain times, but a relationship that organically unfolds throughout your life. He walks through the paradise of your soul constantly, enjoying what is present there: “My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the bed of aromatical spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies” (Song 6:1). He does this towards the evening, because when divine love is in a soul, even when it is lost by mortal sin, its traces remain. Similarly, the movement from Truth into oneself darkens the intellect, because it is not lifted up towards the true light: “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that is wise hearkeneth unto counsels” (Proverbs 12:15). Therefore, God came to them in the evening, as truth and love were declining from them, that He may restore in some fashion the light to their life: “O God, my God, to thee do I watch at break of day” (Psalm 62:2). He in His loving pursuit of every soul makes His presence known, calling out to Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” They were cowering in shame and fear, afraid of what God would do to them. They had fallen from beatitude, beauty, security, perfection to this lowly place, and were afraid of a further rebuke from the God they have shown they do not trust. It is a drawing of Adam out of himself, as love draws one from focusing on themselves and into the heart of the beloved. Therefore, when the God of love called, Adam loved, lifting up His head to the sweet, tender voice of Love, coming out of his hiding place and confessing his failure. He says that he was naked, assuming that because this was displeasing and terrifying to him, it was also displeasing to God. God’s answer, however, is lofty, and he responds, “Who told you that you were naked?”, as if to say, “You were wonderful in my eyes as you were. Why do you find yourself displeasing now?” O how you can hear the tenderness of the Lord now when you hear that “There is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh” (Romans 8:1), because the presence of Christ in your soul lifts it past the radiance of unfallen humanity and brings Jesus to the world: “I will take hold of thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house” (Song 8:2), and God now speaks to you in canticles of love that you may be confident in the depth of his affection for you. God shows that he knows the cause of Adam’s shame, that he reached to a knowledge to make himself like God: “If I was not humbly minded, but exalted my soul: as a child that is weaned is towards his mother, so reward my soul” (Psalm 130:2). He is not wrathful, He does not condemn Adam to the punishment he deserved, but invited him out of himself, that he may correct his fault by a sincere admittance. Ah, how all people drink sins like water, “for a just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again” (Proverbs 24:16) but at each moment the love of God does not come down with aggression, but invites you to start anew: “Shall I come to you with a rod; or in love, and in the spirit of meekness” (1 Corinthians 4:21). His love is as a furnace, and you can throw your sins into His loving Heart as they happen, then bringing them to confession for a formal cleaning of your feet that pick up so much spiritual dirt in the walk of life: “If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me” (John 13:8). Adam, however, rather than running to his Father and apologizing with affection and abandonment, shifts the blame both to Eve and to God for giving him such a companion. God turns to Eve, and where she admits the fault, does not turn to mercy but blames the serpent. O that all would understand the unfathomable mercy of God! O that all could know that their consciences could be wiped clean by love alone: “I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness” (Ezechiel 36:25), that they may be robed in spiritual beauty and purity because of how loved they are: “I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these [lilies]. And if the grass of the field, which is to day, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith” (Matthew 6:29-30). In love alone, you may be as one that “have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Apocalypse 7:14), and then are beckoned: “At all times let thy garments be white” (Ecclesiastes 9:8). It is not in blaming, it is not in self-condemnation, it is not in evasion that God’s love envelopes your soul, but in acknowledging what has taken place: “I have acknowledged my sin to thee, and my injustice I have not concealed” (Psalm 31:5) and asking for the sentence of love, mercy, affection, and grace: “Draw night to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8). This is why “sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace,” that is, you live the life of love, and God desires to pour out all the love possible into your heart: “the love of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us” (Romans 5:5).

Genesis 3:6-7

“And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened: and when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons.”

Eve’s attentiveness moves from the Lord to the object of desire, and her constancy breaks. Her attention moves from the divine to the temporal, and with it placed in front of her, she indulges, breaking the love relationship she has with God. Though her intellectual capacity, not weighed down by sin, is greater than yours, it lays down something important concerning human weakness: All people need constant refreshment. Thirst arises anew, hunger after a few hours returns, and so too with love. A great consolation may make you feel unbreakable, but within a day it fades. “Peter answering, said to him: ‘Although all shall be scandalized in thee, I will never be scandalized.’ Jesus said to him: ‘Amen I say to thee, that in this night before the cock crow, thou wilt deny me thrice’” (Matthew 26:33-34). To keep one’s attention from Jesus is to keep oneself from the waters of life: “He that thirsteth, let him come: and he that will, let him take the water of life, freely” (Apocalypse 22:17), which yields many more opportunities to slip into errors of lust, vanity, and pride as your soul looks for the refreshment of love. So, forgetting her God, she turns to eat from the tree, determining for herself the ways of good and evil, partaking with her husband who had not been vigilantly watching the garden or his wife. The error of Adam in allowing this to take place shows the necessity for vigilance: “He cometh to his disciples, and findeth them asleep, and he saith to Peter: ‘What? Could you not watch one hour with me? Watch ye, and pray that ye enter not into temptation’” (Matthew 26:40-41). The Lord truly doesn’t ask you for much compared to the incredible debt that He paid, but He does ask you for all that you are. The world is burning, the devil is roaming free, and avid prayer is needed: “Shut up this army in the hands of thy people Israel, and let them be confounded in their host and their horsemen. Strike them with fear, and cause the boldness of the boldness of their strength to languish, and let them quake at their own destruction. Cast them down with the sword of them that love thee: and let all that know thy name, praise thee with hymns” (1 Machabees 4:31-33). Who else will rise up to fight in the kingdom of love if not yourself? “Who knoweth whether thou art not therefore come to the kingdom, that thou mightiest be ready in such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). Spread the love of God by your life, by your every action, and by prayer, that He may be loved throughout the world, and keep vigilance for your own sake: “Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist ye, strong in faith” (1 Peter 5:8-9). Adam and Eve were not vigilant, and their vulnerability ceased being something beautiful and intimate, becoming rather something to be hidden and obscured. Their eyes were opened to the potential consequences of what could happen to their hearts and bodies when someone without grace approached them, and their resolution was to pitifully cover themselves with fig leaves. This shows another great mystery, that your sexuality is the most intimate unveiling of yourself to another, a revealing of a secret that expresses you in a profound way. When this is kept in the heart of another, be it a spouse or God Himself, it allows you to be fully yourself with another person. However, like a bully finding out a secret of someone smaller than them, the devil longs to trumpet this and show it to all he can: “To disclose the secrets of a friend, leaveth no hope to an unhappy soul” (Ecclesiasticus 26:24). Adam and Eve realized this, with the devil’s usual tactic being to downplay the consequences of sin in order to tempt before overwhelming with shame after it has been done driving them into hiding from God. They attempt to hide the enormity of their shame beneath little leaves, as people hide the pain and guilt in their hearts behind temporal things. Thus, when you remove yourself from all desires that aren’t God, your soul moves into a place of utter vulnerability, not being able to hide behind its goals, wants, or distractions, and comes before God Himself. It is in these times that He manifests his gentleness, showing that He will not rush in to hurt you as has been done previously, but that He will care for your little heart that you have brought before Him: “Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid” (John 14:27). He is infinite tenderness, and His voice is tender, His hands gentle: “His throat most sweet, and he is all lovely: such is my beloved, and he is my friend, O ye daughters of Jerusalem” (Song 5:16), and He will love your heart in His own, perfect way, if you return to your innocence by the sacrament of penance: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity” (1 John 1:9), and by removing the fig leaves of what is not God that you may bear your heart to Him: “I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

Genesis 3:1-5

“Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: ‘Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?’ And the woman answered him, saying: ‘Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die.’ And the serpent said to the woman: ‘No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.’”

The garden of Eden represents the happy life, which is a life committed to the joyful, festive service of the Lord, and this is something from which the ancient dragon was exiled. He entered the paradise of her life and attempted to undermine God’s command, which she had not heard directly, but from her husband. He did this because, just as love draws out love and makes the beloved more like itself, “he that hath fellowship with the proud, shall put on pride” (Ecclesiasticus 13:1). Filled with envy at the happiness of human beings, he enters to ruin it all, to break the communion of love that exists between Adam, Eve, and God. He asks her a warped question, looking to plant doubt of God’s goodness in her heart. This voice is still so active today, whispering doubts about how loved you are in your mind and using this belittlement to draw you away from Him who loves you. Now, Eve replies with a command that extends beyond what God had ordered, that they would not even touch the tree. This is notable because it can be interpreted that Eve is beginning to give ground that God is arbitrary and restrictive, that His commandments are burdensome and malicious. Likewise, following the commandments without a heart inflamed by love is to enter the valley of dry bones. However, “Thus saith the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will send spirit into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin: and I will give you spirit and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezechiel 37:5-6). To follow the commandments without the love of God is a heavy burden, but this love brings about understanding of His law: “’Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.’ This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). This small concession the devil then uses to open the door entirely, denying God’s goodness and saying that His commandments are laid down for the sake of the suppression of their true selves, which can be found with a sense of freedom from His merciful chains. The reality is quite different, however. It is love that makes you fully alive. It is the freedom to truly love, in the way laid down by Love Itself that is true freedom and in which you will find yourself. It is in this love that all about you, including your weaknesses, will be loved and used for Love’s sake. God desires to share His divine life with you, which the serpent here denies, saying that leaving His ways elevates one to God. God desires a communication of love, to give you His love that you may be love: “I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one” (John 17:23). His ways may be difficult at first, but Wisdom beckons: “Put thy feet into her fetters, and thy neck into her chains: bow down thy shoulder, and bear her, and be not grieved with her bands… for in the latter end thou shalt find rest in her, and she shall be turned to thy joy” (Ecclesiasticus 6:25-29). Furthermore, freedom from God yields slavery to sin: “Amen, amen I say unto you: that whosoever commiteth sin, is the servant of sin” (John 8:34). No, it is the way of divine love, to be directed by grace to love beautifully that is the true expression of your humanity. It is to this way that Jesus invites you sweetly: “Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come” (Song 2:10), that He may make you like Himself, that is, radiant with love.

Genesis 2:21-25

“Then the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon Adam: and when he was fast asleep, he took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh for it. And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam. And Adam said: ‘This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.’ Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh. And they were both naked: to wit, Adam and his wife: and were not ashamed.”

Adam closed his eyes to the world around him, and his mind was opened to the extraordinary actions of God towards him, during which time the Lord would take that which is closest to his heart and mold it into someone that would be yet closer, taking a type of dwelling inside his heart. God makes someone that is complementary to Adam in every way, one to whom he can give himself totally that he may become more fully himself, “For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it” (Matthew 16:25). The gift that you are is something precious, and it is only in being drawn outside of yourself for the sake of love that you will realize the magnificence with which the Lord has adorned you. The Trinity is a community of love, and Adam’s solitude, though he is in a state of perfect happiness, is not the reason for which he exists. He exists for this gift, to be something for someone, and so too are you here for the sake of others, that you may make God loved among them by loving them: “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Love is something meant to be shared: “Give, and it shall be given to you” (Luke 6:38), and it is the reason for which you and all you encounter exist. Looking in the face of the one fashioned for him, Adam proclaims his love poetically, recognizing her as kin, spouse, companion, someone as close to him as he is himself. Ah, the extraordinary grace of spousal love! And yet, there is a further mystery here, that we ourselves are, while good, incomplete. The mystery of spousal union, where two of opposing sexes become one, that they may complete each other, also shows your relation to the Church. Because all human persons have their unique gifts and are made for love, it is the duty of the Church to bring people together in a community of love, all facing towards the same goal as one, that the gifts of some may make up for what is lacking in others, with grace and the commandment of love binding this mystical body together: “Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one Spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:3-4). The communion between husband and wife is the deepest expression of love between persons on earth, but it is also a sign of how love works in the Trinity, with Jesus and the Church as well as the individuals within it, and the love between persons. Because of the deepness of this love, it is not in God’s plan to separate, and similarly is the Heavenly Spouse so closely united to your soul that He, by covenant, will not draw back from you: “This is the chalice, the new testament in my blood, which shall be shed for you” (Luke 22:20), “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:38-39). Finally, concerning the nakedness of Adam and Eve, the lack of shame or wound of the heart allows them to be entirely innocent and free with each other, knowing each other as each was known, with total vulnerability and intimacy, holding nothing back. Jesus desires this level of vulnerability with you. He knows you entirely, “Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line thou hast searched out. And thou hast foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my tongue” (Psalm 138: 3-4), and desires to give this to you: “Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). It is in a place of total vulnerability, where you don’t need an intermediary to be with your Jesus, no recited prayers, but to share with Him your entire heart, that He will give Himself to you as a Spouse: “I to my beloved, and his turning is towards me” (Song 7:10). How the heart hides from love! But the Sweet Hunter always seeks: “Behold he standeth behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking through the lattices” (Song 2:9), not pressuring you to open up, for love “love is patient, is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4), yet He always stands at the door of your heart: “Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Apocalypse 3:20). Ah, what a gracious Visitor, what a calm Spouse, who beckons to you: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is full of dew,” that is, with heavenly grace, “and my locks of the drops of the nights” (Song 5:2), which are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, all of which He longs to give to you, His treasure, His spouse, the light of His world, the bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh, and the two of you are one in you, for you are the temple of His presence, you are His dwelling place: “A mountain in which God is well pleased to dwell” (Psalm 67:17). Therefore, do not be ashamed, for love washes away all shame; He is a tender Lover, and speaks to you with sweetness and compassion, and simply wants you to be yourself in His presence. Be vulnerable with Him, for He is yours, and you are His.

Genesis 2:18-20

“And the Lord God said: ‘It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself.’ And the Lord God having formed out of the ground all the beasts of the earth, and all the fowls of the air, brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: for whatsoever Adam called any living creature the same is its name. And Adam called all the beasts by their names, and all the fowls of the air, and all the cattle of the field: but for Adam there was not found a helper like himself.”

Adam, in the “paradise of pleasure,” was in a state of perfect happiness. There was nothing wanting to him, he was perfectly happy, and in communion with God. However, God, seeing that he could conceivably be happier, acted as love does and moved to increase this happiness in Adam. He needed another person with whom to share the gift of love, that the mystery of the Trinity may be expressed by the love between persons. “Let us make a help like unto himself,” the Lord decrees, and brings the animals to Adam for them to be named. He displays his authority and dignity, far surpassing the beasts, by giving them names. These cannot supply the love man needs to truly live, which can be provided by God and by others: “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Psalm 132:1). You, and those you encounter, are unfathomably precious treasures. While the animals are good, they are not equipped with the reason that Adam here exercises. It is through a rational soul that one is capable of love, it is only through the human heart that love can flow. Now, this distinction gives an important way of approaching both animals and others. Animals are made for use and enjoyment, some to make life more convenient for you, such as ones for eating, farming, or other works, and others for enjoyment and beauty, such as butterflies, pets, or the birds you see outside. They are all good, and exist to make your life more wonderful. However, in approaching others, the same attitude of use is contrary to love. It is the duty of the Christian to go into every encounter with the mindset: “How wonderful it is that you exist!” Love is present whenever you speak to someone else, and when you plant love and beauty in the soul of another, you can draw out love and beauty from them as well. Looking at someone with a sense of usage, leading with the means for which you go to them, goes against the extraordinary dignity with which God has clothed them. Life is so much more beautiful when your every conversation carries with it awe and wonder before the jewel you speak to: “Put off the shoes from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). Every heart is a treasure beyond all gold and precious gems on earth, and treating them as such not only helps with the radiance of life, but will be an extension of love towards your every neighbor. Because animals lack this splendor, the Lord saw that it was fitting to make someone that does have it, that love may abound between equals.

Genesis 2:15-17

“And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it. And he commanded him, saying: ‘Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.”

The Lord then took Adam and put him to a work free from toil, and to keep and guard the glorious goods he had been given. Because of the extraordinary nature of the gifts that God had given Adam, it was part of his duty to keep these goods and use them in their utmost sense, something that Adam could do with a glorious precision, given that his intellect was not darkened by sin at the time. It shows the importance of gratitude, for Adam was given a place of exceeding delight, a work that was effortless and simply required application of himself, and a state of grace that kept him in a frame of mind where he could enjoy everything around him to its fullest capacity. So too the Lord has given you a light yoke, a commandment to love one another, and freedom to express this in the way you see most fit. He asks you to work that you may keep busy, but aims your life solely towards love, and then to keep the gifts you have been given by keeping his commandments: “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Adam, in his later pride, reached for what was not permitted him because he did not harbor gratitude for the beautiful life he had been given, looking always for more. Let your heart recognize the beauty of your life and sing out in thanksgiving. You are loved by God, and He has asked you to keep your little part of the vineyard and bring forth the fruit you can, not asking more than you are able to give. Pray with sincerity: “Lord, my heart is not exalted: nor are my eyes lofty. Neither have I walked in great matters, nor in wonderful things above me,” (Psalm 130:1). You are the guardian of the paradise of your soul, and while the Lord gives the gifts that make it beautiful: “We will make thee chains of gold, inlaid with silver” (Song 1:10), it is your duty to labor towards this beauty and keep the good things within it. As all people take part in a sense in Christ’s priesthood, part of the duty of the Old Covenant priesthood was the upkeep of the temple: O temple of God, O sanctuary of the Trinity, the upkeep is so simple: “In this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the charity of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not heavy” (1 John 5:2-3). Eat, o Theophila, from the trees of the gifts of the Lord, “Be zealous for t he better gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31); from His words that are all open to you, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7); from the living water of love, “He that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst forever” (John 4:13). There are devotions aplenty, gifts abundant, beauty unceasing, all He asks in return is the gift of your heart and to be obedient to Him as a bride, knowing that His commandments are those of a more beautiful love. The world has nothing to offer you, Jesus offers you everything He is and has: “For all things are yours…all are yours; and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:22-23). Live the life of grace, do not die the death because you wanted anything more than to be loved, for this is given to you beyond all understanding if you will simply open your eyes to it: “Lord, open his eyes, that he may see” (4 Kings 6:17). Finally, when you see that all things are yours that you may fall more in love, appreciate every gift, take nothing for granted, because it is all a free gift of love, a bouquet of flowers specifically for you. It is said by philosophers that noticing the ugly makes one ugly, and beholding the beautiful takes the beautiful into oneself, making you more beautiful. Therefore, to ignore these gifts in favor of noticing what you lack is to fall into the pattern of Adam; rather than filling yourself with the magnificence of the world and the gift of love, it would be to become emptiness and want, which is a path that leads to spiritual death. “Consider that I have set before this day life and good, and on the other hand death and evil” (Deuteronomy 30:15). Choose life, beauty, and goodness, choose love, for all things are beautiful, good, filled and upheld with love, and you can see this if you will simply ask: “What wilt thou that I do to thee? But he said: Lord, that I may see. And Jesus said to him: Receive thy sight: thy faith hath made thee whole” (Luke 18:41-42).

Genesis 2:10-14

“And a river went out of the place of pleasure to water paradise, which from thence is divided into four heads. The name of the one is Phison: that is it which compasseth all the land of Hevilath, where gold growth. And the gold of that land is very good: there is found bdellium, and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gehon: the same is it that compasseth al the land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Tigris: the same passeth along by the Assyrians. And the fourth river is Euphrates.”

These verses are of seemingly little note amongst the more intimate account of the creation of man, but “not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3). Here is a description of the Garden of Eden as the original temple of God, from which the water of merciful love proceeds, here seen in the figure of the rivers, and adorned all in gems and beauty, which is described in detail in the building of the temple by Solomon, and finally in the presence of the angels guarding it. This temple imagery all points to your heart: “Know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost” (1 Corinthians 6:19). You are the place where God is pleased to dwell, and from this mountain of love run four rivers into the world, which are four ways of loving your neighbor in God: “Let the mountains receive peace for the people” (Psalm 71:3). The first is the river Phison, which means “to break loose,” and surrounds the desert of Hevilath, which means “sandy place.” So does love break loose hearts calcified by disappointment, sin, and negative self-talk by finding what is beautiful in all, including what is apparently desolate. In each person are gems that can adorn the temple that they are, even in the state of mortal sin. These qualities may not be on the surface, but “Counsel in the heart of a man is like deep water: but a wise man will draw it out” (Proverbs 20:5). The loving, wise heart looks for the gems of beauty in every soul, and draws attention to the gifts that all have, bringing these things forward rather than the negative qualities in one’s neighbor, covering imperfections with hope and compassion: “But Sem and Japheth put a cloak upon their shoulders, and going backward, covered the nakedness of their father: and their faces were turned away, and they saw not their father’s nakedness” (Genesis 9:23). Second is Gehon, which means “to burst forth,” for love cannot be contained, and at the opportunity to make God loved, it is natural to burst forth in praise, prophecy, or other gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is said of St. Catherine of Siena that she would talk for hours about God with her spiritual director, and similar stories are said of St. Francis and St. Clare, St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, and St. Augustine and St. Monica. Breaking forth from your daily rhythm to joyfully climb the mountain of God with someone else that loves Him that both you and they may fall more in love is a beautiful experience: “Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord” (Isaias 2:3). Tigris means “arrow-like,” and surrounded the land of Ethiopia, the southernmost known land in Biblical times. This shows a great haste to dash to those in the lowest place, to never hesitate to go to the broken, the lowly, the outcast, the poor, the sick, or the afflicted and bring the water of love and devotion to them, that they may know they are not forsaken. It also went by Assyria, as mentioned here, which were constant enemies of Israel, going so far as to bring the northern tribes into exile. This demonstrates that love runs even to your enemies, that there is none that should escape your tenderness and desire for salvation. Finally, the name “Euphrates” means “sweet water,” because even if you have seemingly nothing to offer, few talents, little in the way of resources, in sum, nothing to give, a loving look is still sweeter than any dryly done act of charity. A simple appreciation for someone else is more than enough, and expressing that with a smile, even when you’re down, or a joyful greeting is enough. Mary’s greeting bestowed the Holy Spirit, and the Wisdom Literature states: “There is an inactive man that wanteth help, is very weak in ability, and full of poverty: yet the eye of God hath looked upon him for good, and hath lifted him up from his low estate, and hath exalted his head: and many have wondered at him, and have glorified God” (Ecclesiasticus 11:12-13). Even if you have one little talent that is bent and used, giving that entirely to God is a beautiful offering, and if all you can do is smile and bring a pinch of joy, even when you’re bearing a heavy cross, this is enough to give love. These are four different ways that love proceeds from the mountain of the Lord, though these rivers can also be interpreted by the cardinal virtues, which are four ways of loving well. These are justice, temperance, prudence, and fortitude, all of which inevitably come when your mind is focused on loving God and others. From love naturally proceed the other virtues, and without love, these virtues are nothing but sails hanging flat. Love is necessary to be the wind that inflates these sails that the boat of your life may gain forward momentum, and when you focus only on loving God and your neighbor in God, they will come without your noticing: “And I will clothe him with thy robe, and will strengthen him with thy girdle, and will give thy power into his hand” (Isaias 22:1). Therefore, love radically at all times, and spiritual goods will rain upon you: “her labours have great virtues; for she teacheth temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can haven nothing more profitable in life” (Wisdom 8:7), for the Lord will adorn those who water the earth with devotion and love.

Genesis 2:7-9

“And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning, wherein he placed man whom he had formed. And the Lord God brought forth of the ground all manner of trees, fair to behold, and pleasant to eat of: the tree of life also in the midst of paradise: and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

The Lord then fashioned man with the mud/dust/slime of the earth, which sounds like something demeaning, but it is important to remember that all things are both good and fading. The negative connotations can lead you to consider the low, helpless estate you were in before Jesus grasped your heart, with your ability to love being as formless and polluted as mud. However, God in His goodness desired to take a low element and the height of the rational mind and put them together to make something wonderfully complex, with a body that is good and dignified and a soul that gives the body its personhood. You are wonderfully made, and even the dust of your soul before you knew Christ was watered with love, as mentioned in the last meditation. From this mixture, He breathes His Spirit of Love into you; “He breathed on them; and he said to them: ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost’” (John 20:22). Wisdom and love were breathed into the human person, that by these two one may come to a perfection of their natural faculties, for wisdom is “the mother of fair love” (Ecclesiasticus 24:24), and Jesus, Love Incarnate, spent time amongst the elders in the temple, showing that love needs wisdom and instruction to grow to its full maturity. It is by wise love that one lives, for art requires precision and mastery rather than passion, and so the art of loving requires a gentle, insightful touch, refined by trials and experience. Now, the first people were placed in a “paradise of pleasure,” that the things of earth may be encountered in their full magnificence, without the weight of sin or shame inhibiting the wondrous things the Lord had made. Without these weights, each thing could be seen in its full beauty, from the apples of the tree to the grass of the field to the clouds of the sky to the gift of each other to God Himself: “When they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the paradise at the afternoon air” (Genesis 3:8). From the beginning, man, and by a closer look yourself, was made for intimacy with God, others, and creation; all perception is a sort of “taking into yourself” that makes your experience your own, and therefore something to be enjoyed. All things are beautiful! All things are made by the God that loves you. By your restoration to a relationship with God by nature of the state of grace, there is an invitation to return to this same paradise: A paradise in which all things draw you closer to God, deeper into love. While sin constitutes a departure from God, the spiritual life is being carried back up the mountain in the arms of Jesus, that it may be enjoyed anew with a greater appreciation of the love that went into all things and yourself. This is the “mountain in which God is well pleased to dwell” (Psalm 67:17): the world, the soul, your soul. Let all things sing to you the hymn of their beauty, enjoy the paradise that is your life, for He has placed you in the world that He was pleased to make out of love. Eternal life begins at baptism, and the state of grace puts you back in the paradise of intimacy with God, where all things show forth the goodness of the Lord: “The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands” (Psalm 18:2). There are two trees that are particularly noted: First, the tree of life. The fruit of the tree of life is immortality and divine wisdom, which exhibit that God wants to be with you always, and wants you to “know even as I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). It is the nature of lovers to desire nothing but their beloved, and to desire to become all the more one with the other. Any separation, any degree in which they do not overlap, is a form of suffering, the suffering of love. God offers the fruit of knowledge of Himself in abundance: “That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21), and “this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). To know just how loved you are, to know the very essence of love, this is life everlasting, and this was available in paradise. But there was a lesser knowledge, the knowledge of good and evil, which represents command over the moral order, something open to God alone. To eat of this fruit is to return to one’s own perception on how to love rather than following the commandments of the Lord on how to do it properly. This is to love basely or base things, and this is not the essence of love, which is the tree of life.

Genesis 2:4-6

“These are the generations of the heaven and the earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the heaven and the earth: And every plant of the field before it sprung up in the earth, and every herb of the ground before it grew: for the Lord God had not rained upon the earth; and there was not a man to till the earth. But a spring rose out of the earth, watering all the surface of the earth.”

And so the Holy Spirit, contented with His description to you of the creation of all things in a broad view, turns to a narrower focus, that of the beginning of the story of mankind, the ones in whom the great love story of life will unfold. This begins with a look at the lack of vegetation on the earth; a curious detail, but not an insignificant one. God had not issued the command for rain, and it was not appropriate to bring forth the plants, only in seed form, forward without someone to “till the earth.” So too do the words of Sacred Scripture rest in the soul that has not realized their true depth, and without love to wash upon these words and a sound teacher to exposit them, they remain as nothing but seeds. However, in the earth of every soul, one can plant seeds of love by word or action, and the hearing of Sacred Scripture only adds to the potential garden that can grow. Through care, love, and immersion in God’s words, these seeds come to grow into a vineyard of love and wisdom, through which the Savior loves to walk: “Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat the fruit of his apple trees” (Song 5:1). Love, however, is always present, and this is what is represented by the spring that waters the ground. It indicates God’s upholding hand, acting at all times to keep his beloved intact. It is the love of God that made, it is the love of God that upholds, it is the love of God that keeps life moving through one’s being. He is never absent, His love is always irrigating the soul, even if it is in the barren, desolate earth of mortal sin. When there is no life of charity in the soul, no one coming in to tend to it, no rains of expressed love to let it bring forth fruit, when all is death and aridity, God still loves the one that is spiritually dead, and He is always giving the life-giving water of love to them, even if they can’t receive it. In their created life, their little love poem, they may be waiting for that little act of love that changes everything. It is said of Mother Teresa that her smile would bring about deep conversions, and there is nothing keeping your smile and loving eyes from impacting a heart in a similar way. Maybe someone has lived a life completely unloved, or untaught, or led astray, and their garden is simply a desert, be the person that comes to till the soil and call in the rain; “Elias was a man passible like unto us… and he prayed again: and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit” (James 5:17-18). Everyone simply wants to be loved, and you are a “fountain of gardens: the well of living waters, which run with a strong stream from Libanus” (Song 4:15); it is expected of you by your Loving King to be that person that gives the living water of love to those whose souls are parched: “I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink” (Matthew 25:35). God upholds their souls with love, but it is the work of humankind to call in the rain of visible love and work to bring forth the fruits of love in each other.

Genesis 2:1-3

“So the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the furniture of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. And he blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”

God finished bringing things from nonbeing into being. He had filled the realm of possibility with beauty, showcasing His love in every expression we could possibly fathom. However, Our Lord says, “My Father worketh until now; and I work” (John 5:17). This shows that, while “Nothing under the sun is new” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) in terms of what exists, God’s loving care for you is always working. There is not a moment that passes that love is not active in your life. The world has been furnished with the adornments for your wedding feast, but the love of that espousal is ever new, ever effective, ever drawing you deeper into the depths of itself. God had expressed His love in a great variety of ways, and then the climax of the creation account arises with the seventh day of rest. All creation is ordered to this rest, which would become the day of worship in the Israelite liturgy, then become the day of Resurrection and celebration that is our Sunday. By this, the glorious Trinity gives you an example to follow: After wearing yourself down with works of love, showing your love in a plethora of ways and thereby bearing fruit for the divine vineyard; “Thy plants are a paradise of pomegranates with the fruits of the orchard” (Song 4:13), you need to be loved to replenish your cup: “Come to me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you” (Matthew 11:28). O forgetfulness, ever keeping the Lord’s beautiful favors in the background that you may run to Him often and be constantly reminded of His merciful love in new ways. This being loved is what you were made for, and there is nothing as joyful and refreshing as prayer: “You shall draw waters with joy out of the saviour’s fountains” (Isaias 12:3). It is from an abundance of love gathered from prayer that directs the ensuing work: “If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink. He that believeth in me, as the scripture saith, ‘Out of his belly s hall flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38). The receiving of the love of God is not a pleasant break from work, but the work should be an activity that arises as a natural result of your overflowing love, that others may come to your abundant fountain of love and drink. If you are the light of the world, a fire at which others should warm their hands, how can this be unless you are first enflamed and constantly tended to by kindling? Life is meant to be a long act of love, for this is to pray without ceasing, and it is in holy rest that the Lord has the time to fill your cup once again: “The wisdom of a scribe cometh by his time of leisure” (Ecclesiasticus 38:24), and the love of a lover comes from the love they receive from Love Itself. Work is beautiful and necessary, but it is in the moments of restful prayer, in receiving love’s embrace from on high, that your soul can do that for which it is made.

Genesis 1:28-31

“And God blessed them, saying: ‘Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth. And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat: And to all beasts of the earth, to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done. And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. And the evening and morning were the sixth day.”

God gave a blessing to Adam and Eve, to mirror the Trinitarian image by yielding a third person as an overflow of love, not subject to lust but in chaste, upright, pure love bringing forth the glories of marriage, which are children: “Behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb” (Psalm 126:3). This would not be for the preservation of the human race, but to give the gift of life, the gift of harmony with God and others: “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Psalm 132:1), which is still the case, even with the suffering and brokenness that comes with the fallen human condition. All men are called to holiness, to love and intimacy with God, and in varying degrees, with others: “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Because this wondrous love, this life of love, is such a spectacular gift, it is of great value to bring forth natural children: “Whosoever shall receive one such child as this in my name, receiveth me” (Mark 9:36), and even greater to beget spiritual children: “He must know that he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20); “I have no greater grace than this, to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4). In subduing the earth and ruling over it, this is not a dictatorial call to denigrate or treat lowly that which is created, but to walk with creation in a type of friendship, appreciating the beauty of every created thing without submitting oneself to it: “They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of fourfooted beasts, and of creeping things” (Romans 1:23). Because man and creation lived in such magnificent harmony, nothing attacked people, such as can be seen with bears, but lived entirely under the dominion of man, while the divine attributes expressed through these creatures were seen most clearly, without the weight of sin clouding the eye of one’s understanding: “’What wilt thou that I do to thee?’ But he said: ‘Lord, that I may see’” (Luke 18:41). There can be another meaning in addition to this, that “increase and multiply” means to increase in spiritual goods, and multiply these goods by sharing them with others, for love and knowledge are the goods of the soul, and Adam and Eve could profoundly know the things of God by their walking with Him: “And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise at the afternoon air” (Genesis 3:8) and then, by their unique insights, share them with each other, growing even more in their appreciation for the God of love. God then gave the plants of the earth for man and beast to eat, as the love between all things kept a harmony that excluded violence, and this harmony returns when one loves at all times, for “whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:22); “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). As love is the only salve to hatred, “Thy name is as oil poured out” (Canticle 1:2), it is love alone that restores this harmony in one’s soul with God, others, and creation, and this is a gift that He happily gives to those who ask: “Ask, and it shall be given you” (Matthew 7:7); “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13). Finally, God looks upon the entirety of His work, and sees that it is very good, like an artist stepping back from his masterpiece to smile at the beauty that came forth at his hands. Just as a child loves their parents because they gave life, cared for them, surrounded them with good things, taught them, put up with them in their times of struggle, and because they are theirs, so too does God give you life: “It is he who giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25), care for you “He found him in a desert land, in a place of horror, and of vast wilderness: he led him about, and taught him: and he kept him as the apple of his eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10, place an entire magnificent world around you: “All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever” (Daniel 3:57), teach you: “Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth” (John 17:17), shows patience with you: “The Lord is compassionate and merciful: longsuffering and plenteous in mercy” (Psalm 102:8), and belongs to you as you to Him: “I to my beloved, and my beloved to me, who feedeth among the lilies” (Canticle 6:2). The entirety of creation, then, its interwoven nature is radiant, for the individual brushstrokes are all called good, but together on the canvas of creation are called very good. It can then be asked why this did not take place in a moment of time, as God could have done? There are many reasons, but one is to show the journey of love in your life, Theophila, because love is not a spark, an instant, though it may be filled with magnificent individual moments, but that it grows like a tree, extending its roots ever deeper while growing all the more fruitful, strong, and beautiful. It is not an individual encounter with God that denotes a spiritual life, but a lifelong walk with Him, growing accustomed to Him and His ways, until you are fully comfortable in His presence, with a shining, radiant love as a result: “I am a wall,” closed to earthly delights, “and my breasts,” which are acts of love of God and neighbor that from the heart, “are as a tower since I am become in his presence as one finding peace” (Canticle 8:10).

Genesis 1:26-27

“And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth. And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.”

This glorious world that was created, this mirror of beauty made to lead the mind back to its Creator, was set. The wedding venue had been adorned in appropriate majesty. The Bridegroom in joy sits with eagerness as all that He had made in love moved, lived, existed… All of this is good because it is. All things are beautiful; the Lord gives life and being and beauty to all things, that you, His dear spouse, may rejoice in their splendor. However, in all things that are visible, there is none so beautiful as a person, for each person is made in the image and likeness of God, the one visible creature capable of love. For all other things, God is the Creator, but for you and your neighbor, He is Father, Spouse, and Spirit, making you child, beloved, and temple. The Father, by the Word Love, spoke each person into being out of a sheer abundance of love, each possessing the capacity to know and thereby love, and in this man eclipses all other things in creation. Furthermore, the virtue of charity extends to God and neighbor: “’Master, what is the great commandment in the law?’ Jesus said to him: ‘’Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart ,and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like to this: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’’” (Matthew 22:37-39). Other created things exist to lead one’s mind to God and thereby enjoyed: “Thou art worth, O Lord our God, to receive glory, and honour, and power: because thou hast created all things; and for thy will they were, and have been created” (Apocalypse 4:11), but true love exists only between two persons, be these Divine Persons: “The Father loveth the Son: and he hath given all things into his hand” (John 3:35), the divine and the angelic or human: “As the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love” (John 15:9), and between rational created persons, which are angels and humans: “My dearest, if God hath so loved us; we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11); “Are they [the angels] not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14). This is not to disparage the rest of creation, for “The Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15), to be a loving steward of the earth and reap her fruit, but to realize that every person you encounter is more precious than the rest of creation, for they are called to love and be loved: “Every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God” (1 John 4:7). The loveliness of the human soul is extraordinary, surpassing all jewels on earth, and thus your beauty, your preciousness as His child, is captivating to God: “Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse” (Canticle 4:9). The whole created order is here for the service of love, all the praises of what has come before are compliments on the décor of the wedding venue, but these all fade into the background when the bride comes forth; when she does, adorned in white and splendor, all eyes move to the central point of the love story: “Behold thou art fair, O my love, behold thou art fair, thy eyes are as those of doves” (Canticle 1:14). So do all these good things fade, but the love in your heart remains forever: “And now there remain faith, hope, and love, these three: but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). It is also important to remember that God created you, and all people, in His image, not in the image of creatures. How magnificent is your dignity, that you share a part in the splendors of visible creation, while being closer in dignity to your God than you are to the things you see around you. While there are many created things that God sees as good, “One is my dove, my perfect one is but one, she is the only one of her mother, the chosen of her that bore her” (Canticle 6:8). Now, God brought forth two, that there may be complementary pieces of the same mystery, that there may be equals that stand on either side of love. For the Trinity said, “let us make man in our image,” and “Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). Love can only exist when two or more are gathered, and in this is a Trinitarian image: Lover, Beloved, and Love; “Dearly beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God” (1 John 4:7). How the love of God is reflected in His people, for they would not know what it means that “God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24) if it wasn’t for the spirit of love that exists between His people. This love leads to the love of True Love, the Trinity of Truth and Love that expresses I Love You to you in the most perfect manner and with the utmost harmony, which He longs to give you, for if He did not, He would not have made you for the sake of His love. You, and all people you meet, are made from love and for the sake of love; “He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is love” (1 John 4:8), and you would not be made for this purpose if Love Itself did not wish to love you unto folly: “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25)! Run, o Theophila, embrace your Bridegroom, by constantly embracing love. Look at your every neighbor thinking, “How wonderful it is that you exist!”, for if it were not so, they would not be, they are wrapped in life’s love poem as well, no matter where they are in their respective story, and are another masterpiece of God. So God made them, wrapped in beauty and wonder He created them.

Genesis 1:20-25

“God also said: Let the waters bring forth the creeping creatures having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth under the firmament of heaven. And God created the great whales, and every living and moving creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And he blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply and fill the waters of the sea: and let the birds be multiplied upon the earth. And the evening and morning were the fifth day. And he said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, according to their kinds. And it was so done. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and every thing that creepeth on the earth after its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

It is the natural end of all love to desire to reproduce in the context of beauty. Love that is kept for one’s own is lost, “For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it” (Matthew 16:25), and nothing desires to bring forth children in a context of hostility and ugliness. No, it is in the beauty of the created world, with the stars in the air, the waters running and beautiful in its own sense, that the Lord said to the elements, “Bring forth life, living creatures of all different varieties: “Thou shalt send forth thy spirit, and they shall be created: and thou shalt renew the face of the earth” (Psalm 103:30). Every creature glorifies its creator, and the loveliness of all things is meant to fill your heart with rejoicing. When you walk and hear the birds singing, Theophila, this is a symphony performed for you that your Lord has given you out of love. When you see bees taking nectar from bitter flowers and turning into sweet honey, “The bee is small among flying things, but her fruit hath the chiefest sweetness” (Ecclesiasticus 11:3), you can learn that drinking from the bitter cross with love yields waters of love that are quite sweet: “But he cried to the Lord, and he shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, they were turned into sweetness” (Exodus 15:25). The creatures of the sea all have stories to tell; consider the clam, who hides within it a treasure that is protected by a secure shell. So too is the treasure of your love safeguarded by God’s truth: “His truth shall compass thee with a shield: thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night” (Psalm 90:5); “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth” (Ephesians 6:14). There is such an innumerable variety amongst the creatures of earth, wind, and sea; each one so wondrous that the natural reaction to even one little animal is heavenly joy: “How great are thy works, O Lord? Thou hast made all things in wisdom: the earth is filled with thy riches” (Psalm 103:24). Consider also that the greatest adornment to creation is life. The sun, moon, and stars are the great heavenly bodies, but the ordering of creation gives a greater dignity to the little bird. Mighty oaks and wondrous flowers spring across the earth, but these are not filled with the same kind of life possessed by the squirrel that makes its home in the same tree, or the butterfly that sits upon the same flower. How beautiful life is, Theophila! “He hath made all things good in their time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11); “I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified: wonderful are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well” (Psalm 138:14), thus God gives life, “And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7), that you may know the gift of love, radiant through creation: “For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity” (Romans 1:20). Thus, God gives the commandment to His creatures to give the gift of life; for people this is so that the magnificent gift of life may be known, but for beasts this is so that they may be a spectacular adornment upon the marriage feast of the Lamb with your soul: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath prepared herself” (Apocalypse 19:7). There is an interesting point here, too, about the generation of animals, for their reproduction is blessed, and though the wording is the same as the blessing to man: “And God blessed them, saying: ‘Increase and multiply’” (Genesis 1:28), the blessing is not the same, for animals reproduce purely out of instinct, whereas man is created by an overflow of love, and each soul that is created He directly creates alongside man and woman: “From my mother’s womb thou art my God” (Psalm 21:11), therefore he repeats this blessing to each person, that they may bring forth the fruit of love, be it by physical or spiritual children, or both: “The fig tree put forth her green figs: the vines in flower yield their sweet smell” (Canticle 2:13). Finally, there is a mystical sense to the creation of the creatures, for there are three paths of life: The fish, that live in the waters of sin, never coming above the surface to see the goodness of heavenly reality, the beasts, which though in the daylight of truth, still cling to the things of earth, represented by their limbs all being fastened to the ground, and the birds, that, knowing the love of God and racing to Him, fly effortlessly above the pleasures and trials of earth in heavenly love and truth, singing sweet songs of love in their hearts.

Genesis 1:14-19

“And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years: to shine in the firmament of heaven, and to give light upon the earth. And it was so done. And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night: and the stars. And he set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth. And to rule the day and the night, and to divide the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and morning were the fourth day.

Consider, Theophila, the goodness of divine ordering, for He sees that all things are in need of ordering and oversight: “Let every soul be subject to higher powers” (Romans 13:1). Because light already existed: “And God said: ‘Be light made.’ And light was made” (Genesis 1:3), this was less to institute light as much as to give the light a source and a way of determining seasons for man. What does this have to do with ordering? Just as the night and day without the sun and stars to indicate the passage of time are formless and too broad, so too is the way of I Love You too expansive, able to take quite simply too many different expressions: “Shew me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of thy companions” (Canticle 1:6). Therefore, it is of great benefit to have one that rules the day, or a spiritual guide that shows you the patterns of love, that rejoices in your joy during the great times of consolation during the spiritual life: “And he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun” (Matthew 17:2) and your guide and encouragement when the night is dark: “The moon and the stars to rule the night: for his mercy endureth for ever” (Psalm 135:9); “If to the left hand, what shall I do? I shall not take hold on him: if I turn myself to the right hand, I shall not see him. But he knoweth my way, and has tried me as gold that passeth through the fire” (Job 23:9-10). Now, the sun, moon, and stars do not dictate your life, for you and Love do that, but are rather beautiful, created things that help you understand the divine nature in a greater way: “The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands” (Psalm 18:2). Further, these same luminaries were held as deities in many ancient cultures, and in truth they are adornments to the love story that is your life. How magnificent you are, who hold in your hand as a flower given to you by your Beloved those things which others heralded as gods, who are greater in dignity than that which dictates the very seasons: “Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?” (Canticle 6:9)! Consider too, Theophila, that these objects become sources of light, by which you see all that is beautiful, and give thanks for that which gives light to your eyes, just as you can always give thanks for the lights of Scripture and tradition that illumine your understanding to the way reality and love actually are. Now, God puts in two “great lights,” which are the sun and moon, and whereas other stars are greater in radiance and size, the sun and the moon have the most immediate impact on the world, showing that while there may be great missions and saints throughout the world that are more radiant than you, your love has the greater impact on those that are near you, for those are the ones that expect your presence and love, and in many instances need it: “If any man say, ‘I love God,’ and hateth his brother; he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not?” (1 John 4:20). Therefore, you can be a star to those that are afar off, shining brightly but in passing, but to those that are near, be a moon, a shining, great reflection of the heavenly light of love that illumines them through their nights of trials, that they may have a greater appreciation of the sun of love that keeps you radiant.

Genesis 1:9-13

“God also said: Let the waters that are under the heaven, be gathered together into one place: and let the dry land appear. And it was so done. And God called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And he said: Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth. And it was so done. And the earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yieldeth seed according to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit, having seed each one according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.”

And at the words “Let the waters… be gathered together into one place: and let the dry land appear,” that which had, in a sense, existence but not the beautiful form that we know and touch and encounter, that beauty was so. He then begins to make the elements; in antiquity, it was believed that there were four elements: Earth, water, fire, and air, with the air having been made, and earth and water now receiving their form. These four were connected in a circular way, as earth was dry and cold, water cold and moist, air moist and warm, and fire warm and dry. What pertinence is this to love? It shows that even such things as the elements are interwoven, united in beautiful harmony in a way similar to siblings. As love can only exist between two that share commonality, this is ingrained into the fabric of being of the world that is around you, with the elements themselves needing to share with each other the splendor of union, the wonderfulness of love! “Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them” (Romans 1:19); “Shout with joy to God, all the earth, sing ye a psalm to his name; give glory to his praise” (Psalm 65:1-2). Earth and sea are separated and distinguished, being each their own unique creation when the Lord deigns to make creation more magnificent, so He looked upon land in its dry barrenness and, with the desire for greater beauty to showcase His own fruitfulness, the steady growth of love in the soul, love’s seasons of bloom and winter… Ah the lessons that can be learned by the observance of what is green! In this too is a lesson that you are not the other saints, and you express love in your own fashion, and when you let yourself be yourself, not seeking a ready-made spirituality but recognizing your own gifts and letting love flow through them, then you will bear fruit: “Let the people, O God, confess to thee: let all the people give praise to thee: the earth hath yielded her fruit” (Psalm 66:6-7). As for the vegetation itself, St. Basil the Great indicates that plant life began as seeds and rose up to their fullness. In this is seen the flourishing nature of the hearing of the loving words of Sacred Scripture, “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11), which is spoken into the earth of your soul, raising it up into a beautiful garden: “I am come into my garden, O my sister, my spouse” (Canticle 5:1); “The Lord therefore will comfort Sion, and will comfort all the ruins thereof: and he will make her desert as a place of pleasure, and her wilderness as the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of praise” (Isaias 51:3). You are then called upon to sow seeds of divine love elsewhere, for those who do not hear the words of God can still know your love, therefore by love you draw souls, and when this flourishes into the fullness of the gospel message, then you are beckoning the Divine Gardener: “Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat the fruit of his apple trees” (Canticle 5:1). Consider too, the extraordinary variety of plants, as even flowers, trees, and herbs are each categories that contain many different individual types. This is simply a sign of the incredible variety amongst people, for each soul, though all are human, is more unique than their face, and each holds a life story that longs to be told. Therefore, look to the plants and see their beauty and uniqueness, and realize that you are far more beautiful: “And if the grass of the field, which is to day, and to morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith?” (Matthew 6:30), and wonderfully you. There is no need to change what you are, but to realize you are perfectly loved as you are, called to bring forth the seed of divine love according to your own manner of loving. The fruits of this the Lord calls good: “Thy plants are a paradise of pomegranates with the fruits of the orchard. Cypress with spikenard” (Canticle 4:13).