The Fragrance of “Love!” What does that mean? And how can “love” have a fragrance? Well, let’s start on a little trip that I took yesterday to a local Nursery and Florist located in Oceanside, New York on the Feast of St. Lucy – December 13th.
Yes…I said above “Oceanside, N.Y.” – however, the above image is from “Dee’s Christmas Tree Farm” located up in Maine. I did not travel to Maine…but I did travel to Oceanside!
Why? Certainly not to pick out a “live” Christmas Tree! I was there on a special mission to find possibly a fresh evergreen wreath to place behind the Blessed Mother statue on our mantle.
I must have made laps around the store – browsing here and there and finally left with one purchase. It was not the wreath that I had been on a mission for. Placing my purchase in the car – I glanced over at the “Christmas Trees” and the sound of stumps being trimmed and going through the netting machine. Hmmmm…..should I walk over?
Last year I surrendered “back” to an artificial Christmas tree. The kind that has three parts that connect and are complete with lights that don’t tangle! What was I doing? I just got the car washed – inside trunk clean and here I was walking through the entrance. I had a tree waiting to be taken down from the attic.
But here I was…..about to be accosted by a Christmas Tree “calling” out to me!
Yes! You are seeing correctly. This is the “innocent” tree that flooded my nose with its Christmassy fragrance. I walked by it and said – no Anita! No live tree! You are just here to walk through and go home. But the tree had other sights – and not to be in the lot that it was standing in. It seemed like the tree was speaking to me – to my heart and my soul.
The fragrance was beyond heavenly. Several times I tried to walk in another direction but found myself returning front and center to this evergreen! So, I bought it strictly by its smell. The smell permeated my senses and the trunk of my car. As I drove home, I kept thinking what did I just do????
As the tree was placed in the stand and given a drink, it seemed the fragrance even got stronger. I know it will sound crazy but this little tree seemed to have a “living” message for me and I surrendered to the moment.
There were so many thoughts I contemplated within. The gift of the senses – the gift of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. I certainly couldn’t taste the tree but in some ways I felt I was doing just that. It was feeding me with thoughts to ponder.
This beautiful season of “seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling.” The smell of Christmas cookies baking in the oven, of food prepared with love for family and friends, of seeing Christmas lights ablaze with color in neighborhoods and of hearing Christmas songs and caroling. There is something else – almost a “sixth sense” that I am feeling with the arrival of this little Christmas tree in our home. . .
When you look at this image above. . .it seems that Mother Mary is inhaling “love”….She’s inhaling the essence of “Love” because she is holding “Love” in her arms.
The picture above could not be more perfect! Again – why? As our little Christmas tree was being decorated today on this Gaudete Sunday of Joy many thoughts flooded my mind as each ornament was hung on a branch. I thought of the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph and the “fragrances of love” they must have breathed in living with Jesus. They must have been fragrances of “kindness, compassion, total love in serving and healing others.” But most of all doing the “Will of The Father.” The Holy Family not only “wore” the “fragrance of love” but They exhaled it.
Mulling over the title of this blog, I started to recall a song from the 70’s! It’s a song from 1977 entitled – “Love is in the Air” by John Paul Young. It became a worldwide hit in 1978. I remembered it well when I listened to a youtube of the song and the lyrics certainly moved my heart to Jesus.
The words embody the senses. . .yes….“Love” is in the air and everywhere. “In the whisper of the trees” and in “their fragrances” that call out to us every moment of our living days here on earth because it’s a “Calling from God” – just like the little Christmas tree called out to me with it’s fragrance.
Here are some of the lyrics of the song.
Love is in the air, everywhere I look around
Love is in the air, every sight and every sound
And I don’t know if I’m being foolish
Don’t know if I’m being wise
But it’s something that I must believe in
And it’s there when I look in your eyes
Love is in the air, in the whisper of the trees
Love is in the air, in the thunder of the sea
And I don’t know if I’m just dreaming
Don’t know if I feel sane
But it’s something that I must believe in
And it’s there when you call out my name
Love is in the air, love is in the air
Love is in the air, in the rising of the sun
Love is in the air, when the day is nearly done
I just love images. . .they just speak to one’s soul and here you can see one of the lambs above with nose upturned “breathing in love’s fragrance.”
We are invited to come and partake on Christmas Day. . .to smell and taste the “love of Jesus” enter into our hearts. Then we, too, can be a “fragrance of love” to others. To serve them, to love them, to heal and accompany them here on earth and on their journey home to the Kingdom of God. Isn’t that what we are called to do? To walk each other home in the “fragrance of love.”
That little Christmas Tree….had a message for me yesterday on the Feast of St. Lucy. It was a message of “Light” and I understand it better than I ever did. No perfume is any more heavenly than the aroma of “Love” shared with others and given out freely. Let us “wear it well” just as the Holy Family did that first Christmas morning and throughout their lives. Below is a mighty prayer from St. John Henry Newman that can bring us not only into Christmas but all the days of our lives.
Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your Fragrance wherever I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly, that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with
may feel Your Presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from You, none of it will be mine.
It will be you, shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You the way You Love best,
by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by my example;
by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.
Amen
©2025 Anita Guariglia
Christmas Tree/ Anita Guariglia
All Other Images – Pinterest and Instagram
2 Responses
Oh, Anita, how beautiful to recognize the pure love of Jesus in the wonderful fragrances and aromas all around us. The picture of Our Blessed Mother inhaling the love of Jesus is precious. This is quite a lesson to know Jesus is with us so completely we can feel His love in our senses…the scent of a Christmas tree, a beautiful sunset, a hug, a tender touch and even a good meal.
Thank you, Anita, for awakening our senses to “Love.”
Oh! Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree – how lovely are your branches that charmed me by your fragrance into taking you home to our house. I believe it was that “tree” – that awakened me to that “Fragrance of Love”….and probably another blog in the future but also the “tree” of the Cross….and what fragrance that was offered up in that sacrifice. So much to dwell upon and ponder……Thank you for your comments:0)