For much of yesterday (Sunday) we pottered about in the garden. Thinning the leaf cover on the pond, watering, planting, picking, tidying. I spent the day intermitantly considering the connection between gardening and spirituality/devotion. Early reflections on Mary – for example, relied heavily on the image of the “enclosed garden” or Paradise. This was not merely a reflection on her virginity (Paradise being un-tilled, un-cultivated but naturally beautiful), it was also a statement about spirituality and transcendance. Virgins were constantly reminded not to allow anyone to lay waste to their garden (see for example Athanasius’ First Letter to the Virgins of Alexandria) – to trod on the delicate flowers, or pick the fruit – attaining spiritual progress, demands that one not allow distractions to enter the garden, as they destroy the flowering plants.

A garden – one’s own personal Paradise – is not just a metaphore. Gardens, big and small are places of beauty, serenity, inspiration, and thanksgiving. Praxis is all about “cultivating” inner beauty, serenity (clarity of mind), and thanksgiving – with inspriation as a natural by-product of the three.

A garden is a place to commune – just as Adam and Eve communed with God before that unplesant business with the snake, we commune with nature, with one another, and in the quiet beauty of our little Paradise, with God himself.

If perhaps you are reading this thinking: Ha! I live in a flat, or a city, and have no space nor time for “gardening” allow me to attempt to pursuade you otherwise.

A window box, an old file box lined, filled with compost and placed on your balcony, or in front of a big window. A Potted fig with some small flowers around the edges, what about a strawberry pot? how are these not also mini-Paradises? The possibilities are endless, and only limited by your creative use of what’s available.

Below – for example – we’ve used an old grill to grow lettuce in. It’s pretty, it’s utilitarian, and it is extremely low maintenance.

Do you have a window in your bathroom? Why not get a couple of orchids and either stand them on the window sill, or hang them from the ceiling – many smell amazing, all of them produce beautiful long lasting flowers, and benefit from the steam of your shower.

Your own little Paradise, is about joy, beauty, and refreshment – just as our practice of Christianity is. And just as there is no set form for the practce of our faith – there is also no set form for establishing your own quiet point in space for prayer, reflection, communion, and beauty.

It might be awkward to think about establishing a shrine in your home. Over the centuries since the foundation of Sacramental Christianity we have moved away from the home as the centre of our life of faith toward the church building where the focus of our rituals, feasts, functions and features now rests.

This shift, it seems, has had a negative effect on our perception of how we live within our faith. We have, sometimes unconsciously, come to seek the sacred “out there” “elsewhere” anywhere but right here in our home – among our friends and family, conducting the “mundane” rituals of life. We therefore, often view our daily routines as “profane” – any sense of their sacramentality has been diminished, largely because we no longer percieve the place where we are, now, as a sacred context. The church building has overshadowed the sacred character of our homes.

A home shrine is a feature of your home that you assemble, which has meaning for you and your family. You might go for the more “traditional” icon corner (perhaps with very un-traditional icons), you may choose a small table with a statue and a candle, perhaps a reading stand with a Gospel book, or festal icon, the possibilities are endless. Through a home shrine, your perception of where you meet God, and encounter the sacred is re-aligned. It is not “out there” but here, now.

Burning lights in honour of the saints and martyrs has been a feature of Christian devotion since the late antique period. Jerome (Against Vigilantius) pointing to the example of the woman who anoints Jesus with costly oil (Mt. 26.6-13; Mk. 14.3-9; Lk. 7.36-50), defends the offering of lights as an act of heartfelt love and devotion.

Vigilantius also accuses that the practice is a pagan form of devotion that has no place in the life of the faithful Christian. It is true, pagan households did have shrines to the gods where various offerings were made and devotions took place. Jerome’s response can be roughly summarised thus: So what if it is! The intention now, however, is to honour God and his saints.