By Silvia Holgado (Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi)
March 3rd 2025 - Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center
It is curious—and a little depressing, why not say it—that after a few warm and sunny days here in Jerusalem, March has arrived with its penitential Lent, bringing gloomy and freezing weather, with dark grey skies upon us. Well, I don’t want to make small talk about the weather with you.
I would like to share with you an image of the Holy Land from a few weeks ago that I found very inspiring—one that now becomes even more eloquent under this leaden sky and in this situation of suffering that we all know.
Nature, steady in its cycles, presented us at the end of February with a splendid narrative of what is to come. The Holy Scriptures give them the meaning of “watchmen,” “prophets,” those who see what will happen—"those who watch and are awake." Its blossoming is a foretaste of something better; it is known as the tree that awakens because it is the first of the fruit trees to bloom after the cold rains of winter. It is the symbol God uses in the Bible to assure us that His Word will be fulfilled, that nothing escapes His vigilance.
“The word of the LORD came to me: What do you see, Jeremiah?”“I see a branch of the almond tree,” I replied.Then the LORD said to me: “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to carry it out.”
(Jer 1:11-12)
Blooming almond trees in Jerusalem
Having seen it before Lent anticipates that after this darkness (in so many ways in this Holy Land), the fruit will come. And it will be a sweet fruit of resurrection and life. Now we begin a few weeks of contemplating a radically greater tree:
Faithful cross, above all other:
one and only noble tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
none in fruit thy peer may be:
sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
sweetest weight is hung on thee.
(From a Hymn of the Liturgy of the Hours, 6th century)
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