All Heaven and Earth
Flowered white obliterate...
Snow...unceasing snow.
I’ve always loved this Japanese Haiku, which so describes the day here at Saint John’s Seminary. The day is wrapped in a thick, quiet blanket of white powder which seems to have no end. Yet there is a quality of snow that seems to bring heaven down to rest upon creation, as something which belongs invisibly in the sky visibly coats the earth.
It’s a good day for praying, for taking some time apart from the normal pace of life, and just sitting with God and watching, in the beautiful words of Truman Capote “the falling quiet [where] there is no sky or earth, only snow lifting in the wind, frosting the window glass, chilling the rooms, deadening and hushing the city.”
