Trinity

Today the Western church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Trinity, that whom is the perfect community of love, and from whom all creation originates. Its true nature, defined and redefined by sacred Councils in the first millennium of Church history, is nonetheless beyond human understanding.

But not for want of trying. (H/T to Ryan Ellis.)

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Love is a light burden that gladdeneth young and old;
Love is that blood-red winter's rose which blossometh in the cold;
He that giveth all to Love hath all that heart can hold.

Fond desire shall fade and fail as doth the flower in May;
Lust is but a fire of straw that smouldereth for a day;
Love that liveth in thy heart shall live and love for aye.

Thou that, on the Cross of Love, wast crowned of lovers King,
Melt this iron Winter, Lord, to Love's eternal Spring;
Hold and fold us all beneath the shadow of Thy wing.

Richard Rolle (1292-1349), version by Alfred Noyes)
 

Mother

Lovely Lady
    dressed in blue,
Teach me
    how to pray!
God was just
    your little Boy,
Tell me
    what to say!

Did you lift Him
    up, sometimes,
Gently,
    on your knee?
Did you sing
    to Him the way
Mother does to me?

Did you hold
    His hand at night?
Did you ever try
Telling stories
    of the world:
O! And did he cry?

Do you really think He cares
If I tell Him things --
Little things that happen? And
Do the Angels' wings

Make a noise? And can He hear
Me if I speak low?
Does He understand me now?
Tell me for you know!

Lovely Lady dressed in blue
Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little Boy,
And you know the way!

(Mary Dixon Thayer wrote many poems in honor of Our Lady. This particular one was popularized in the 1950s by Archbishop Fulton Sheen.)
 

V-E Plus 70

To honor the seventieth anniversary of V-E Day, celebrating the Allied victory against the forces of tyranny in Europe in 1945, veteran pilots of “The Greatest Generation” take their flying machines over the Nation's Capital. More at cnn.com.

(Video courtesy of iPhone 6. Best I could do on short notice.)
 

The First of May

"When I was small, and Christmas trees were tall / We used to love while others used to play // Don't ask me why, but time has passed us by / Someone else moved in from far away …"