As we move into the summer season, we are very aware of the emergence of colour all about us, especially in the vast array of garden and wild flowers.

Last summer I was sitting on a bench in a park, when a mother came along, wheeling a pram with a toddler of about three, running at her side. The mother sat down for a rest while the little boy ran over and took the head off one of the large white daisies growing in front of us. He ran to his mother to show her the deep yellow centre of the daisy, which seemed to fascinate him. He then decided to remove the centre with his nails and, finding that somewhat difficult, he decided to use his teeth. As he tore out the centre, the white petals fell to the ground, one by one. Utterly frustrated and angry, he came running to his mother, screaming and crying ‘My flower is gone’. Without the centre, the flower had disappeared.

That experience made me aware, in a new way, of the significance and the strength of the centre, even in the tiniest flower hidden in the woodland or in the crevices between the rocks.  Thomas Merton reminds us that each of us has been gifted with a strong centre.

‘At the centre of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin or illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind and the brutalities of our will. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody’.

Summer allows for more time to rest, to relax, to gaze and to wonder.

As we admire the beauty of the countless flowers, which we will encounter this summer, may we be drawn to give a little more time to contemplate the wonder of our being, and the reality and beauty of that centre which Thomas Merton says is in everyone.

The seed of God is in us
Now the seed of a pear tree grows into a pear tree
And a hazel seed grows into a hazel tree
A seed of God grows into God – Meister Eckhart

Dervilla Byrne rsm
South Central Province