Florine

Dear Diary,

This morning’s Gospel reading stayed with me all day. Sister Mary Claire read it aloud while I helped finish folding the kitchen linens. Jesus said He spoke in parables because some people looked but didn’t really see, and listened but didn’t hear. Their hearts were too closed. I felt a little sad thinking about that—how Jesus was right there with them, and they didn’t even notice.

Sister said that parables are like little treasures, hidden in plain sight, and only those who really want to understand will find them. I told her I want to be someone like that. Someone who listens with her heart.

Later on, we sat together in the cave while Mini snoozed under my desk, curled up like a fluffy red loaf. The stream was trickling quietly, and a breeze made the curtain at the entrance flutter like a prayer flag. Sister brought out a small old prayer book—Florine’s. She keeps it wrapped in linen and opens it as gently as a pressed flower. The pages are all handwritten in soft German script. Some of the lines are so faint you can only read them in the light near the cave entrance.

She told me again what little we know of Florine. Just a little German girl, born before 1850. We don’t know her story—but someone must have loved her deeply to give her such a book. Maybe she knelt by her bedside like I do, whispering prayers from those pages to Jesus and Mary.

Sister read aloud one of the lines written at the front of the book:

“Radiant sunbeam, blessed morning light, gentle soul of life…”

We were both quiet after that. It felt like the kind of quiet where Heaven is near.

I thought maybe Florine didn’t always understand every prayer, just like I don’t always understand every parable—but maybe she kept praying anyway. And maybe that’s what matters most.

Before we left the cave, I tucked the prayer book back in its linen wrapping and placed it gently near my recipe-card box. Then I whispered a little prayer of my own:

“Dear Jesus, let my heart be wide open like a morning window,
so I may hear You in the hush of a story
and see You in the softest light of day.
And thank You for Florine, who surely rests with You in Heaven—
maybe she helped her little prayer book find its way to me.”

Love,

Kathy 🕊️