This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday. One of the flowers associated with the Holy Trinity is the trillium (above). It is essentially a wildflower and does not seem suitable for church decoration but certainly calls to mind this aspect of our Faith.
According to the work of Mary Gardener John Stokes, several other plants are also symbolic of the Trinity, including pansies and even aloe vera.
Stokes relates:
"In Europe the wild pansy, or johnny-jump-up, viola tricolor,
was also widely known as Trinity Flower - for the three colors of each
of its flowers, from which familiar present-day larger pansies blooms
have been bred with one or two colors usually dominant.
"An
interesting aspect of bred pansy strains of a dominant color is that the
other two colors are always preserved at the centers of the blooms.
Thus, pansies of yellow dominance may be seen to symbolize the glory of
the heavenly Father; purple the sorrows of the incarnate Son; and white
the light of the processing Holy Spirit - with the other colors in each
instance always retained at the center, serving to remind us that
whenever one of the Persons of the Trinity is present the others are
present also, in the unity of the Godhead of love."
A favorite prayer of mine is this Morning Offering to the Blessed Trinity:
"Most Holy Trinity, your goodness has brought me to the beginning of this day and now I offer it to you with its thoughts, words and actions together with any crosses and contradictions which I may encounter. Give your blessing to this day, your gift to me, so that it may be animated with your love and so bring glory and honour to your divine majesty. Amen."
Prayer: From A Treasury of Catholic Prayers, Alexia Coxon, Kindle version.Closing image: Shield of the Trinity
