Simple Beauty: Altar Flowers for the Holy Family

Altar flowers for the Feast of the Holy Family.  Four arrangements in white and gold.  

Carnations, alstroemeria, mums and English laurel greens.  

Some thoughts on simple, uncluttered beauty:

After placing the arrangements on the gradines, my eyes panned round the empty church.  A restoration project is underway: the pews have been removed for refurbishing and the carpet ripped out, revealing the century-old redwood floors.  The nave of the church, now completely bare, in its hallow simplicity, drew my eyes upward to the stained glass windows.  

Their simple beauty is often obscured by the surroundings: a hodgepodge of miscellaneous abandoned items left over from a Church mostly forgotten.  The torn out ambo, the red velvet prie dieus, the colored glass votive candles and the dusty artificial ferns are crowed together uncomfortably in nooks awaiting the rummage sale, the parish hall closet, or the dumpster.

In the absence of all the usual visual distraction, the windows came into focus. They are simple, elegant representations of symbols and devotions. The names of those faithful familes who built this country church are written at the bottom in black.

My altar flowers seemed to nod their little golden heads from the sanctuary in tribute to them and to those whom built the ambo, bought the votives and upholstered the prie dieus.

The pelican is a special symbol for me.  See my post Recovering What Was Lost.