I woke up this morning to a new coat of snow, transforming nature with its white blanket. The snow that clings to barren tree branches gives these their barrenness beauty and life. But this beauty is fleeting since the snow either falls away of melts.

We can’t hold on to beauty nor can we possess it…beauty is to be relished in the moment and then let go of. Life is forever moving forward and time reminds us that, while life is short , we are given moments of beauty to lift us into Hope. Even though we must not cling to the beauty, we keep it secure in memory. In remembering the beauty of the crisp, brilliantly white snow it is made present to us; beauty lives in the memory.

At the foundation of our faith…our religion….our Church…are the words, “Do this in memory of me.” In the Word and in the Eucharist, Christ comes alive in the memory and in the remembering. In remembering a scene of natural beauty that is so fleeting as melting snow, we are blanketed with the beauty of Grace.
And Christ is Present in the falling of the snow.
You gotta love winter …

Peace and Joy. Fr. Frank