Viriditas

This is a word I learned recently reading Wisdom of the Body and found myself  greatly enamored of it.  Viriditas is one of the fundamental principles of Hidegard's worldview and it means "the greening power of God.....a life force that we can witness in forests, gardens, and farmland."  I witness it in my backyard as I sit on the couch in the porch and marvel at the lush green of grass, trees, hostas, that surround me.  It is "Viriditas."

I referenced this word in a sermon in Bowling Green Ohio on Mother's Day.  I decided to preach - for the first time on Mother's day - on Mother Mary as an archetype for us all.  In it I talked about the invitation that God has for her to give birth - which is "Viriditas" or participating in bringing life into this world.  Mary for us represents not only the invitation that God offers but also the response we might make - which is YES.   This is part of the sermon:

I learned a new word this week – “Viriditas” – the greening power of God.  We see it around us this time of year – the creating and recreating spring flowers and trees and shrubs. 

And it is just a metaphor for the ongoing new life that God has for you and for me.  That is what God does always – brings life and grows us to become like God – in two ways – our compassion and our creativity.

Mary is an archetype for the unlikely people through whom God can bring new life.  And Mary – whether you are male female – resides within us.

She is the voice of YES when the invitation comes.

Yes I will trust what I do not understand

Yes I will allow myself to be changed inside out

Yes I will place myself in a situation where I may be misunderstood by others

Yes I will trust God even though I feel very vulnerable in this moment

Yes I will bring life into this world.

Yes I will choose love

As I sit on my porch pondering this, my eyes fall on a new angel I was given that Sunday.  As I arrived at the church, a woman I did not recognize asked if she could have a few words with me.  Of course, I said and led her into the office that had been mine for the thirteen years I served as pastor there.  Her name is Glenna and she is the sister of Virginia, a former member of the church who had passed away a year ago.  Virginia, suffering from cancer, gave Glenna a list of twenty names of people who to whom she wanted to give a gift.  My  name was on the list and Glenna had learned that I was preaching on Mother's Day.  So, she explained how she and Virginia had enjoyed traveling and shopping together and especially appreciate "Jim Shore" and his figurines.  They each acquired over the years quite a collection.  She presented me with two angels and said that her experience had been that one of them would speak to me.  They each were labeled and when I saw this one, I knew it was the one.

On the bottom of it are these words: "New Beginnings."  So, as I prepared to speak that Sunday about the angel coming to Mary to invite her to give birth, I brought with me to the pulpit this angel.  And, in my mind it all connects - viriditas, birth, new beginnings and God's invitation.   It is all about being open to see the angels and hear the voices inviting us to new life.

Here is how I ended the sermon on Mother's day

For a New Beginning
by John O’Donohue
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.