Duties of State of Life

Although it has been changed since then, when I was in the Girl Scouts, the pledge we recited solemnly was, "On my honor, I will try, to do my duty to God and my country, to help other people at all times, and to obey the Girl Scout law."

When one of my parents wanted me to do some particularly unpleasant chore, the directive would sometimes be prefaced with, "How would you like to do something for your country?" I was not convinced that weeding the garden was a patriotic act, but the phrase did seem to invest the chore with a level of importance.

I saw my beloved maternal grandmother do her housewifely chores with a degree of dignity and discipline that is rarely seen these days and perhaps was uncommon even then. She was a Lutheran, not a Catholic, but she understood well the teaching that God's will for us is to give first priority to the duties of our state of life. How I wish I could perform my duties as well as she performed hers.

Although I have never been able to locate a source that relates when and where he said it, I have heard many times that one of St. Pio's maxims was that one's duty of state must come before all, even holy things. I think I understand what he meant by that.

For a married woman her duties are clear: husband, home, and family come first. Blogging must be somewhere way down the list. Recently, a young mother put up a good post about this principle.

The single state has duties too. Their specifics are something that has to be sorted out with the help of a good spiritual director. Generally speaking, however, the single life is supposed to be a life of service. And, some of us have been blessed with a profession that allows us to be compensated monetarily for serving others. For us too, these duties and others must necessarily come before blogging.

While I have not exactly neglected my professional duties since I started blogging early this year, I regret that I have not given them and certain other responsibilities the wholeheartedness I should have. For that reason, for the foreseeable future, I will be visiting sites on the internet much less and posting with much less frequency at this site. I do have many, many ideas for posts, however, and so I will continue to post occasionally as it seems proper.

Image:
Old-fashioned housewife from an antique Danish greeting card.

St. Salaun and His Lily

Here, a few days late, is the story of Salaun, a canonized saint whose feast day is November 1. The setting is 14th century Brittany (a region in northwestern France, on a peninsula between the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay).

According to Baring-Gold, St. Salaun's life was originally recorded by Jean de Langouezenou, a Benedictine monk who was the abbot of Landevenec and a contemporary of Salaun. The original account was lost and so it cannot be determined how much the more recent versions vary from the original. In summary, this is the story:

Salaun (also referred to as Yann Salacin, Solomon, or Salomon) was a poor child from the area of Lesneven. At school, he learned to revere the Blessed Virgin Mary. He learned nothing else.

He would gather flowers in the fields and bring them to the Virgin's altar where he spent hours every day.

He begged his food by the roadside and by knocking at doors. He would plead, "O Lady Virgin Mary! Salaun would like some bread!" He often wandered in a certain wooded area and slept in the trees or in the barns of peasants. He would swing in the branches of the trees singing "Ave Maria".

Once during the disputes between Charles of Blois and the Count of Montfort, some soldiers asked him to which side he belonged and he replied, "Neither to Blois nor to Montfort, but to Mary".

Because he was regarded as a simpleton, he came to be called "The Fool" and the woods he inhabited "Fool's Wood" (Folgoat or Follcoat).

Salaun died on All Saints' Day around 1358 and was buried in a churchyard. From his grave, a tall, pure white lily grew. The grave was opened and it was discovered that the lily sprang from Salaun's mouth. Some accounts say the petals of the lily were inscribed with the phrase he used to cry -- "O Lady Virgin Mary!" Others say they were inscribed with "Ave Maria", written in gold.

A church was erected in the Fool's Wood called "Notre Dame de Folgoat", which portrays the story in a stained glass window. The church became the most popular pilgrimage destination in lower Brittany.

Sources:
Baring-Gold, Sabine; The Lives of the Saints, Vol. 13 (1898), pp. 40-41.
Sedgwick, Anne Douglas; A Childhood in Brittany Eighty Years Ago (1919), pp. 196-197.

Image:
"Lilium Neilgherense", an illustration by Walter Hood Fitch (1817-1892), from Wikimedia Commons. In the public domain.

Foliage and Form in Church Flower Arrangements - Part 2

This is the second part of a two-part post on foliage and form in church flower arrangements relying on Katherine Morrison McClinton's 1944 book, Flower Arrangement in the Church. Here McClinton describes the three types of massed arrangements she views as especially suitable for church decoration: the massed triangle, the massed oval, and the massed vertical:

"HOW TO MAKE A MASSED TRIANGLE

"In making a massed triangle arrangement, always start with a tall center stalk as your primary line. Then measure two stalks of identical length and place them horizontally to each side of the vase. Continue filling in the triangle with flowers. Place the heavy or dark colored flowers for emphasis in the massed triangle low in the vase and radiate the second triangle with stalks of lighter toned flowers back of the small triangle. Combinations of flowers which are excellent for this arrangement are amaryllis with a delphinium fan; roses with delphinium; roses with stock and anemones; tulips with dogwood; Madonna lilies or peonies with double syringa. It is not necessary always to have a contrast in hue as two or more different varieties of flowers give a contrast in texture which is interesting. The same floral design may be made with one variety of flower backed with a fan of leaves. . . .

"The shape and proportion of the triangle arrangement may vary with the size of the arrangement desired, as this arrangement can be made in a small altar vase or a large urn vase to be set [elsewhere in the sanctuary] . . .

"MAKING A MASSED OVAL ARRANGEMENT

"In making an oval arrangement, first place the center or core flowers low and firm near the base and the other flowers can be made to radiate about this center. An oval arrangement should have depth, as well as height and breadth, and this can be accomplished by turning some flowers to the side and others to the front. An oval arrangement is especially suited to vases with bulges or full-curved contours and to churches with oval archways.

"MAKING A MASSED VERTICAL ARRANGEMENT

"A massed vertical arrangement is particularly suitable for a simple, tall vase, although a tall urn may be used. First of all, place the vertical stalks, then place the secondary stalks which may be down near the vase or may ascend rhythmically alongside the vertical so that they too form a vertical line. Contrast in flower form is necessary to make this type of arrangement successful. For the tall vertical stock, delphinium or lilac may be used, while the secondary line may be built up with roses, asters, or daffodils of various length stems."

Unfortunately, McClinton does not provide diagrams, but it is fairly easy to visualize what she describes, and a little trial and error ought to yield a good result.

Note that in part 1, posted previously, McClinton said that the massed vertical arrangement is especially suited to narrow spaces, narrow vases, and Gothic architecture. In small traditional chapels, one must usually work with narrow spaces (the altar shelf), so vertical arrangements in narrow vases might be best. On the other hand, if the sanctuary is large enough, with the priest's permission larger arrangements could be placed on pedestals elsewhere within the sanctuary, such as on either side of the altar.

Source:
McClinton, Katherine Morrison; Flower Arrangement in the Church (Morehouse-Gorham Co., New York, 1944, 1958 edition); pp. 49-52.

Image:
"Hippeastrum Pardinum", from Wikimedia Commons. In the public domain.