Blossom like a flower

There is nothing that gives you a joy equal to that of gratitude. You hear a bird sing, you see a lovely flower, you look at a little child, observe an act of generosity, read a beautiful sentence, look at the setting sun, anything whatever: suddenly this comes upon you, this kind of emotion, so deep, so intense, that the world manifests the Divine that there is something behind the world which is the Divine.

THE MOTHER

And yet, of all movements, the one that perhaps gives the most joy—an unalloyed joy, untainted by egoism - is spontaneous gratitude. It is something very special. It isn't love, it isn't self-giving. It is a very full joy. Very full. It is a very special vibration unlike anything other than itself. It is something that widens you, that fills you, that is so fervent! Of all the movements within the reach of human consciousness, it is certainly the one that draws you most out of your ego. . . .When you can enter this vibration in its purity, you realise immediately that it has the same quality as the vibration of Love: it is directionless. .. . Ultimately, gratitude is only a very slightly coloured shade of the essential vibration of Love.

THE MOTHER

Gratitude
It is you who open all the closed doors and allow the saving Grace to enter.

Ipomoea carnea
Large white to pale pink extremely sheer funnelform flower with a lavender pink throat; borne singly; flowers close rapidly towards mid- day. A straggling shrub that blooms profusely most of the year.


Detailed Gratitude
The gratitude that awakens in us all the details of the Divine Grace.

Merremia quinquefolia
Small white funnelform flower with a limb that emerges from a light green calyx and has a recurved edge; borne in axillary cymes; the buds and flower stalks are covered with bristly hairs. A rampant perennial vine with palmate leaves and clusters of dry seed capsules that resemble miniature wooden roses.


Mental Gratitude
The gratefulness of the mind for what makes it progress.

Merremia tuberosa
Wood rose, Yellow morning glory, Spanish woodbine, Hawaiian wood rose
Medium-sized golden yellow funnelform flower with the corolla tube completely enclosed by enlarged sepals; borne in few-flowered clusters from the leaf axils but blooms one at a time. A vigorous woody vine that has palmate leaves with seven deeply cut lobes and dried seed capsules that resemble carved wooden roses.


Integral Gratitude
The whole being offers itself to the Lord in absolute trust.

Operculina turpethum
Wood rose
Large white funnelform flower with five shallow irregularly rounded lobes, a light greenish yellow throat and a corolla tube enclosed in light green enlarged sepals; borne singly or in few-flowered cymes from the leaf axils. A rampant vine with attractive seed capsules.