Iris Show

 The Little Flowers hosted the Iris Society Show and entered their arrangements as well as a few rhizomes from their own Iris garden. It's a bit late in the season and our recent rains obliterated most of the best blooms, but we eked out a great show. We gathered the night before to prepare and had a petal meeting and spent the next day showing them off. 

The girls learned about Edith Stein also known as St Benedicta of the Cross. The virtue was wisdom and the flower, Iris. The iris represent Our Lady and its name means, "sword lily" reminding us of the sword that pierced Mary's heart. 

Edith Stein (1891-1942)) was born to a Jewish family in Germany (now Poland). She rejected her Jewish faith and became an atheist at 14. She dedicated her time to learning and fighting for justice for women. While seeking truth, she read a biography of St Theresa of Avila and realized the Catholic faith was the Truth she’d sought in knowledge. She converted to the faith against her mother’s wishes. She became a teacher and mingled faith with scholarship. She eventually became a Carmelite at the start of World War II and dedicated her life to God and the service of others. She was not afraid to suffer as Christ did. Together with other Jewish Christians including her sister, Rosa, Edith was arrested by Nazis and taken to Auschwitz where she was martyred. St. Benedicta of the Cross’s feast day is August 9. She is a patron saint of Europe.

The virtue of wisdom is about using knowledge to perfect the faith and understanding the Truth of faith. Wisdom is a gift of the Holy Spirit received at Confirmation. The girls played a game demonstrating the difference between knowledge and wisdom and unscrambled their verse.

Little Flowers received their awards for the iris art contest they entered a few months ago. Mrs. Morris led the girls in arranging their pet and farmer's market entries. This in addition to many other events throughout the year was part of their floriculture badge work. Floriculture is the cultivation and trade of flowers. 

The saint for floriculture is St. Thérèse of Lisieux. The Little Flowers have adopted St Thérèse as their patroness. We strive to follow her little way and do small things with great love. 

Thérèse (1873-1897) was born in France to a loving family. All her sisters became nuns and her parents are Saints too. Though she accomplished very little in her life as a Carmelite, she became a great Saint and doctor of the Church with her great faith and devotion to God. She endured much suffering in her short life. She persevered and had a strong will. At first she wasn’t accepted into the convent because she was too young. She asked the pope directly, and was allowed to enter. Her feast day is October 1 and she is said to answer intercession with roses. 

When the show was over, the flowers were gathered up and re-arranged into donated vases. We delivered them to the residents of St. Agnes Home to enjoy. I failed to get pictures of the kids arranging the flowers, but they helped! Then everyone pitched in to clean up the gym. 

The flower show was a lot of work, but also great fun and a super activity to share with our community. We learned a lot and grew in wisdom as well. This concludes Wreath II!