Letters From Japan : The Theology of Cherry Blossoms
While in Japan, I was thinking about the parallels between the blossoming of cherry blossoms and the blossoming of femininity.
I just spent nearly two weeks in Japan!
Osaka Castle
I went to Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo, and Suzuka! This was my second time in Japan, the first time I went was some years ago during fall. This time I went in spring, which is peak Sakura (cherry blossom) season! The beautiful cherry blossoms are in peak bloom and I was surrounded by a lovely and vast sea of them.
People were flocking from all over the world to get a glimpse at these beautiful Sakura trees. If there just a week earlier, I would have missed the full bloom. Many people expressed their disappointment in missing the beautiful cherry blossoms, as it’s the highlight of the trip. - This got me thinking about The Lord. Just as people flock to these beautiful cherry blossom trees and are disappointed when they are not in full bloom; Jesus wants to view us in our blossoming and wants us to bear fruit. He is dissatisfied when we are not reaching our full potential, in the full bloom of our femininity.
We do not want to disappoint The Lord by being spiritually barren, we want to be women who have allowed our femininity to flourish and blossom. Just as people flock to these beautiful cherry blossom trees, people also flock to a woman dwelling in her peak femininity; she’s magnetic and draws you in with her authentic feminine self. Not only do people flock to a woman in full bloom, but God Himself can’t help but flock to, dwell in, and shower graces upon a woman embracing her feminine essence. This example can be found in fullness in The Blessed Virgin Mary, whom God found favor with, and deemed her “full of grace” and worthy to be His Mother. God flocked to her soul, because favor could be found within her.
The more truly feminine you are and the more virtue that is contained within you, the more grace God desires to unleash upon your soul.
“When the Holy Spirit, finds Mary in a soul, He hastens there and enters fully into it. He gives Himself generously to that soul according to the place it has given to His spouse. One of the main reasons why the Holy Spirit does not work striking wonders in souls is that He fails to find in them a sufficiently close union with His faithful and inseparable spouse.” - “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary” by Saint Louis de Montfort
I bought some cherry blossom perfume while I was in Japan, and I’ve been thinking about the parallels between the blossoming of cherry blossoms and the blossoming of femininity; the sweetness of the cherry blossom, the sweetness of femininity. Girls twirling around taking pictures under the cherry blossom trees. God’s lovely creation wows the heart and pleases the eye. Authentic beauty captures hearts, cultivates loveliness, and dwells in sweetness.
Kyoto, Japan
The women in Japan for the most part dress modestly. Immodesty is frowned upon in Japan, and the women can be seen wearing skirts and dresses. You seldom see women wearing athletic attire or sweatpants to run errands like you do in America. One thing that is big in Japan is efficiency. The trains run right on the dot, there are no garbage cans yet seldom any trash on the street, the public parks and streets are lined with beautiful Sakura trees, and politeness / common decency expressed in the form of excessive bowing, can be observed. A little effort goes a long way; and that can be observed in regard to the effort put into dressing up, effort to make public spaces litter-free and aesthetically beautifully. I would like to see a shifting of the tide in America to get back to putting in effort, and caring about that which is important. The devil attacks that which is valuable, and America, One Nation Under God has been viciously attacked with all of the seven deadly sins running rampant. Pride, lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, anger, envy. One sin that largely gets overlooked is the sin of sloth. Not putting in effort is a slippery slope. Not putting in effort to dress well, not putting in effort to clean up cities and make them once again beautiful, not putting in effort to have manners and beautiful speech. Sloth isn’t just physical but spiritual as well. Not caring about little things snowballs into not caring about bigger things or even life itself, which is why there’s a crisis of people not valuing marriage, and not valuing human life.
I was able to go to Holy Mass in Japanese on Divine Mercy Sunday. Granted, it was a modern looking church, but the Priest gave a long homily (which was in Japanese) and let me kneel to receive Holy Communion on the tongue as is proper. I was thinking about Our Lady of Akita. Please read this article “"Our Lady of Akita's Powerful Message To The Modern World"to learn about the revelations and miraculous weeping statue of The Blessed Virgin Mary in Japan, deemed “Our Lady of Akita” and see this article “"The Miracle of Hiroshima – Jesuits survived the atomic bomb thanks to the rosary" to learn about the miracle of the small group of priests who survived Hiroshima, and received no harm from the radiation that killed thousands in the following months.
To sum things up, I had a lovely time in Japan and the highlight for me was seeing all the beautiful cherry blossoms. When the petals fell they looked as snowflakes, and just that one visual holds so much beauty and so much wisdom.
Tokyo, Japan
Serviam
April 18th is The Feast Day of Saint Agia
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