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Passion Flower & Daffodils: Flowers for the Altar of Repose


Arrangements for the altar of repose on Holy Thursday. Daffodils, white tulips, jasmine, passion flower greens, hebe and dusty miller.  Thank you Fleur de Marie-Jacqueline for the inspiration!

*A cautionary tale about daffodils.  I bought them on Holy Wednesday looking gorgeous.  By Holy Thursday morning the petals were beginning to turn slightly papery and brown, and by the time I arranged them and transported them a half hour in the car...not so great.  Buy them the day of the Mass, if possible!  The ones that were partially closed when I bought them on Wednesday, oddly, didn't look so great either.  

Thanks be to God, from a short distance they looked very pretty.  

This was also my opportunity to use passion flower vine which I tucked in at the base of the arrangements.  I discovered the beautiful symbolism of this vine only a few years ago.  Find more on that here.

Some two years ago or so, our good curé asked if I would disassemble this fiddleback chasuble so the orphrey could be sent to Rome to be rebuilt. It was an inexpensive find on a used liturgical vestments website. The green silk was badly damaged but the trim and the orphrey were beautiful and salvageable. 

The floral motif caught my attention and he explained to me the symbolism.  I fell in love all over again with the beauty of the Faith.  The via pulchritudinis in every detail.     

In anticipation of the Easter flower feast, a delightful read on the use of flowers in vestments can be found here on the Liturgical Arts Journal.  A blessed Good Friday to you! 

Comments

  1. Marie-JacquelineApril 6, 2021 at 6:05 AM

    Another wonderful post! I liked that you added the vestment photos and information. I also liked that you linked Elaine Jordan's terrific post on the passion flower. She has many such on the same site. I just added a link to this post of yours to my own brief post on flowers for the altar of repose on Maundy Thursday. Your own blog - dare I say - is really blossoming!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. GemmaApril 6, 2021 at 8:58 AM

      Wonderful, thank you Marie-Jacqueline! He is risen, Happy Easter!

      Delete

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