CRUSADERS FOR CHRIST
  • Blog
    • Staff only
  • About Us
  • Downloads
    • Catholic Homeschool - Study Guides
    • Handwriting
    • Student Planners
    • Coloring Pictures
    • St. Catherine's Academy Gazette
    • Printable Children's books
  • Catholic Reading
    • Books We Have Enjoyed
    • Saint of the Day
    • Just Stories
    • Chapter Books >
      • Jesus of Nazareth - The Story of His Life Simply Told
      • Little Therese
      • Lisbeth - The Story of a First Communion
    • Sermons for Children
    • This and That
    • The Blessed Mother for the Child in all of us!
  • For Moms
    • Popular Instructions on the Bringing Up of Children

    - Why the Dahlia Is Not the Queen of Flowers -                  Quinquagesima Sunday

2/8/2013

0 Comments

 
  "If I speak with the tongues of men and angels but do not have charity ... I am nothing.”

The King of Storyland once wanted to select the most beautiful flower in his kingdom to give to his daughter the princess on her birthday. The flower chosen was to be given the title, "Queen of Flowers." So the king sent messengers all through his realm and told them to bring back the most beautiful flowers they could find.

Well, when the messengers got back the throne room was filled with flowers - lilies from the marshes, violets from the leafy dell, bluebells from the hillsides. The king examined each one and chose two—the dahlia and the rose. A startlingly big blue dahlia and a strikingly red rose.

The king said, "I cannot make up my mind which is the more beautiful. The rose is lovely, but the dahlia is bigger and spreads itself and has no thorns." All the wise men in the land looked at the flowers with magnifying glasses and measured them with micrometers, but they were forced to say, "We cannot decide either."

Finally the king decided that the only thing to do was to ask the princess herself to choose the flower to be the "Queen of Flowers." She took the rose in one hand and the dahlia in the other and without a moment's hesitation chose the rose. So the rose was named "Queen of Flowers" and has been ever since. Afterward the king asked the princess how she could make up her mind when all the wise men in the kingdom could not. He said, "The dahlia has beauty. Why did you not choose it?" She answered, "It was easy, father, I did not choose the dahlia. It has beauty. But it has no fragrance."

The good actions which a person does when he is not in the state of grace, i.e.) when there is mortal sin on his soul, are called dead actions. If a person in mortal sin performs a good action, like an act of charity, that action does not profit his soul. Certain actions, like receiving the sacraments, can even add another sin of sacrilege. These actions are like the dahlia; they have beauty, but no fragrance.

The good actions which a person does when he is in the state of grace are called living actions. They do add grace to the soul. They have beauty as well as fragrance, like the rose.

That is why it is so important to remain always in the state of grace, because then our hearts can expand and blossom like the rose, giving off an odor of sweetness before God. Are our actions like the dahlia, having beauty but no fragrance? Or do they have beauty and fragrance, like the rose?

                                                                                    ~ “Heirs of the Kingdom,” Imprimatur 1949 ~

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

    Categories

    All
    13th Sun After Pentecost
    14th Sun After Pentecost
    15th Sunday After Pentecost
    16th Sun After Pentecost
    16th Sun. After Pentecost
    17th Sunday After Pentecost
    18th Sun After Pentecost
    19th Sunday After Pentecost
    1st Sun.after Epiphany
    1st Sun.after Epiphany
    1st Sun After Pentecost
    1st Sunday Of Advent
    1st Sunday Of Lent
    1st Sunday Of Lent
    24 Sunday After Pentecost
    24th Sun After Pentecost
    2nd Sun. After Easter
    2nd Sun. After Epiphany
    2nd Sun. After Pentecost
    2nd Sunday After Epiphany
    2nd Sunday Of Lent
    2nd Sunday Of Lent
    2nd Sun Of Advent
    3rd Sun After Easter
    3rd Sunday After Epiphany
    3rd Sunday Of Advent
    3rd Sunday Of Lent
    4th Sun After Easter
    4th Sun After Epiphany
    4th Sun. After Pentecost
    4th Sunday Of Advent
    4th Sunday Of Lent
    5th Sun. After Easter
    5th Sun After Epiphany
    5th Sun.after Pentecost
    6th Sun. After Easter
    7th Sun After Pentecost
    8th Sun After Pentecost
    9th Sun. After Pentecost
    Covetousness
    Epiphany
    Heavenwords
    Heirs Of The Kingdom
    Judas And St. Peter
    Old Man Reilly
    Passion Sunday
    Pentecost Sunday
    Quinquagesima Sunday
    Septuagesima Sunday
    Sermon For Epiphany
    Sermons For Children's Masses
    Sexagesima Sunday
    Trinity Sunday

    RSS Feed

© Crusaders for Christ 2012