Shared by Sue of Half the Kingdom
Anne Marie was one of those people who truly lived the commitment and calling of being Christ's follower. She had raised her family and kept a home by dint of sacrifice. As she edged into her retirement years, they fully reflected a life of faith. Even with health challenges of her own, including cancer, she attended to the forgotten among us, with regular visits to those in need - the hungry, those in hospitals as well as nursing homes.Author Unknown
Her get-well cards for those she knew well and loved with a Christian heart were starling. They were homemade spiritual bouquets.
"I have remembered you:
in 9 Masses
in the reception of Eucharist 9 times
in 9 rosaries
in the Way of the Cross 9 times
in Eucharistic Adoration 9 times
and offered them for your intentions"
and so on. Each unique. And each, life-giving.
"I was a girl in Catholic school the last time I experienced anything like this" one elderly woman exclaimed. She had experienced wave after wave of disabling illnesses. And that little card and greeting said so much to her. She was not alone but part of a larger body - the Body of Christ. Held before the Lord in prayer (reminding her that she was, of course, held gently and lovingly by her heavenly Father at all times.)
A wonderful gift. Thoughtful and steeping in reality as much as any gift could be.
Advent is a wonderful time to revive your own experience of the spiritual bouquet. You learn the needs of others in a myriad of ways; arrange the "bouquet" in the way best suited to the gift recipient.
Fill it with spiritual gifts offered throughout the Advent season. Embellish it with real or silk flowers, perhaps presented in a small basket, gathered in the festive cellophane wrapping used for artsy gifts and baskets.
Give a Spiritual Bouquet to your parents, if you are privileged to have them with you still. Remember a sick or shut-in friend with a Bouquet. And give them liberally to the young. Their questions, their sense of wonder will grow as a learning experience in faith, as they unwrap your spiritual gift.
And invite the children in your family to create their own Spiritual Bouquets at Christmas - wonderful gifts for parents and grandparents. They will delight in your instruction, in sharing a project with you.
The Spiritual Bouquet will make this a memorable Advent and Christmas for you and your family.
A few years ago, we were celebrating Fr. Schmidt's birthday. He was a Maryknoll priest who celebrated Mass for our group of Catholic Homeschoolers. One mom had the idea of presenting him with a bouquet of flowers on which we pinned the spiritual bouquet would be offer for him. It has now been over 5 years and I still remember to pray for Fr. Schmidt what I had offered as a Spiritual Bouquet. Since then I have given Spiritual Bouquets to our parents, Fr. Duffy and our Holy Father John Paul II. When he went home to God, Pope Benedict XVI inherited that daily Hail Mary meant for him.
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