When the tree has blossomed fully . . . : Reflections on the Church

The Second Vatican Council presented a vision of the church particularly suited to contemporary times. The authors propose that a seminal text of Chiara Lubich, “Look at All the Flowers,” suggests how the Council’s vision can be realized through mutual personal relationships that reflect the very life of the Trinity. The model of such relationships and therefore of the Christian community and of the church itself is Mary at the foot of the Cross, who “lost” the God in herself for the God who is present or will be present in every human being, then and now. “Look at All the Flowers” demonstrates how that Marian profile can be lived out individually, in local communities, and in the church so as to generate living cells of the Mystical Body, renewing both church and society. Two icons, from the Church of the Savior in Constantinople and from San Clemente in Rome, demonstrate this dynamic relationship between the personal, the ecclesial, and the secular