Transfiguration

Miss Eagle writes: The Eagle's Nest: Transfiguration:

To-day is the Feast of the Transfiguration. Three years ago, the fruit tree beside my home office window was covered in blossom (the picture is from 2005) but my fruit trees have very few blossoms at this time and my magnolia seems to have blossom as a permanent condition since they have been there so long without flowering.

And Miss Eagle's tree looks beautiful, and a reminder that Spring is around the corner, and soon there will be new life bursting out every where, and the world will be transfigured too.

Thou wast transfigured on the mount. 0 Christ God, revealing Thy glory to Thy disciples as they could bear it. Let Thine everlasting light shine upon us sinners. Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Giver of Light, glory to Thee (Troparion).

On the mountain wast Thou transfigured, 0 Christ God, and Thy disciples beheld Thy glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold Thee crucified, they would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary, and would proclaim to the world that Thou art truly the Radiance of the Father (Kontakion).

But this year here too there is no sign of spring yet. Up the road from us the grass is still blackened from winter fires, and the willows are still bare and leafless. An image of the Church, perhaps, torn apart by fighting and disfigured by sin. But perhaps the fire is also a purifying one, and we will yet see some green shoots.