Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of
God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the
hearers.
2 Tim 2:14.
Lesley-ann
X + X
ROSES
The Maygold rose outside my window has been in full bloom for two months
now, it came from Cockers in Aberdeen – the Scottish climate is good for
roses. In the beginning of the Christian tradition, roses were seen as a pagan
symbol, but later on this Queen of Flowers was victorious not only in gardens
but also in symbolism. I would like to take you on a couple of visits to old and
new rose miracles.
There is a Bible garden in a place called Barth near Stralsund at the Baltic
coast. It seems to specialise in Christmas Roses. These are actually not
roses, but hellebores, but since they open their flowers around Christmas
time, according to popular belief they belong to the miracle flowers. Their
flowering was understood as a sign of paradise in the middle of winter and
was put in relation to the birth of Christ. The Church was originally not very
keen on roses, they do not feature in the New Testament, although at the
time of Christ’s birth wild roses grew in Palestine. Yet in Egyptian, in Greek-
Roman and in Germanic mythology they play a big part.
The goddess Aphrodite was said to have stepped into the thorns of a rose,
when she hurried to the side of her dying lover Adonis, which made the white
flower turn red, and the Germanic goddess Frigga had roses planted round
her sanctuary which were supposed to help with childbirth.
Our next destination is the courtyard of the cathedral in Hildesheim,
Germany. It contains a miracle rose.
During the Middle Ages the rose was lifted up into a high position within
Christian symbolism. One of the reasons for this are legends about roses,
like the one concerning the Emperor Louis the Pious, who in 815 AD got lost
in the forest and hung his cross with an image of the Virgin Mary on a bush
and prayed for delivery. When he awoke after hours he found that bush
covered in roses, while snow had fallen all around him. He pledged to build a
chapel on the spot, from which later the cathedral arose, which is dedicated
to the Virgin. The rosebush in the courtyard there is said to be 1000 years
old, and even during the second world war another miracle occurred around
it.
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