This article was written for the April 2024 issues of our parish magazine. Here it is for you again:
When I was child, my parents and I moved to the United States for a couple of years. It was spring and so one of the first English phrases I learnt in my new school was: ‘April flowers bring May showers’ – I kept saying it the wrong way around until somebody finally corrected me.
Apparently, the saying: ‘March winds and sweet April showers do bring forth May flowers’ can be traced traced back to Thomas Tusser, who in 1557 who wrote the book “A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry,” which gave all sorts of advice about gardening. This image of “showers and flowers” may be one way to look at the seasons of Lent and Eastertide. First, we have to go through Lent, with its focus on soul-searching and a spring cleaning of our hearts. Then, just as May flowers follow April showers, the radiance of Easter breaks into our lives. Every year in April God’s creation reminds us to look at the “showers” of disappointment, sadness and suffering in anticipation of the “flowers” that will bloom in our lives because of them – the blessings of perseverance, humility and gratitude. I believe that all of us, each and every one of us, are all called to turn the “showers” in our own and other people’s lives into “flowers” of hope and joy. How can we do this?
Do you know ‘The Story of Two Pots’? A woman had two pots, one was perfect in every way, the other one had many cracks and broken places. Each day the woman filled the pots with rainwater she collected and then carried them down the path to her home. The first pot felt proud that she never spilled a single drop, the other was ashamed because no matter how hard it tried, the woman lost a lot of water along the way.
One day the two pots overheard the woman talking with someone who lived nearby. The neighbour exclaimed, “The flowers along your path are so beautiful! What’s your secret?” The woman answered, “One of my pots is broken and the water that spills out helps the flowers grow every day.”
I believe that all Christian communities are a bit like the second pot in the story. Our “April showers” can truly lead to “May flowers” because God sees purpose also in all the setbacks, difficulties and challenges we are facing. I have been attending St Margaret’s for 7 months now, and would like to thank you all for welcoming me into your community which is helping me to grow deeper in my faith.
Wishing you a warm and sunny (!) April,
Krystyna Kwarciak
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 