As I look at a vase of cut flowers, I see the beauty of life you gave to us in your death. These flowers are beginning to fade, dropping petals and showing a droop, maybe even a slight discoloration – and funny, I think it is relative to my life without you. Cut from their life source – root and foundation – they are living weakly, struggling to stay pretty – inside and out.

I choose you dear Lord – I choose to be not your cut flower, but your potted plant – going through cycles of bloom and fruit but ever growing. Prune me if it is your will – remove the dead in my soul and that which surrounds my heart; that which places a distance or wall between us. Keep me in order with you and your desires for my life. Water me often with your life-giving water, feed with the banquet of your body. Let my leaves lift up to you and shine like the noon-day sun.

O most gracious and loving Father, I seek the face of your beloved Son, who grants mercy on me for the sins I have committed. I choose nothing more than to love you, adore you, and do whatever you ask of me. I know and have received your mercy which endures forever and your justice shall reign. Your love is unconditional; your grace is made perfect in my weakness.

I pray forgiveness for my ignorance; for the power of the devil and his work confuses me. May my fallen state be granted absolution so that I can come to accept your body and blood with a pure and clean heart.

I lift up myself to you now in a riot of springtime color …. alive because of your death … and whether my blooms be big or small, I only pray they bring me ever closer to your most Sacred Heart.