Sr Julie Doran’s Wildflower Garden
The sisters in our Dublin Community find God in all places, but they especially love to be close to the Creator in the beauty of their garden.
Sr Mary Jo spends time feeding the birds that visit the garden, and Sr Julie loves her wild flower garden (pictured above), especially at this time of year when it is in full bloom. There are various beautiful spots in the garden that the sisters have created and nurture with love, creating a peaceful refuge for contemplation.
It’s been a while since I’ve visited our Dublin community, having been home in Cork since the onset of COVID -19, so I was especially happy to receive photo’s from our sisters of their garden, which I remember so well.
It’s interesting how we are guided by the unseen hand of God if only we would pay attention. I received an email from Sr Eithna Synnot that made reference to this quote by St Augustine of Hippo:
“Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Note it, Read it. God, whom you want to discover never wrote that book with ink. Instead God set before your eyes the things the creation. Can you ask for a louder voice than that? Why, heaven and earth shout to you: ‘God made me!’”
St Augustine of Hippo, an early Christian theologian and philosopher, was bishop of Hippo Regius (present-day Annaba, Algeria) located in the Roman province of Africa. His writings have been hugely influential in the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. Among the original ideas expressed by St Augustine at the time, he died in 430, was the theological concept of the Book of Nature as the complement to the Book of Scripture.
The photographs, followed so closely by this quote seem to me to be God’s voice speaking, unmistakably and undoubtedly, about the interconnectedness of all of creation.