There’s an abundance of such creatures on Holy Souls Mountain. Of the zillion different kinds in this world of ours, this is the North American Rain Forest Gargantuan type. This particular one is a male (they’re more brown than green). Last year’s report on the Praying Mantis beasts of Holy Souls Mountain had a female (here: yikes!).
Did you know that, in Greek “mantis” means “prophet”? I like that. “Praying Mantis” = “Praying Prophet”. Prophets, in fact, should pray and must pray if they are going to manifest the truth of our Lord in all charity.
They are slow moving, careful, always on the hunt, but when they strike out to capture some prey, they are lightning quick. And their bite is ferocious. If you respect them, they’ll be happy to be around, capturing all sorts of insects. They are great to have around gardens. And have great personalities. Compare them, for instance, to the personality of a cockroach, which only comes out at night and scurries away afraid of it’s own shadow. Instead, these guys are at the top of their own food chain, and are not scared of anything.
If HSH were ever to become a 501(c)3, perhaps I could mail out a Praying Mantis for a donation. It doesn’t sound right to be selling praying prophets, though, does it? Hmmm… I’ll have to think about that one.
Meanwhile, I wonder if, with the encouragement of a Teresa of Avila to always look for spiritual life analagies in nature and the encouragement of a Francis of Assisi to be convicted of our ineptitude in following up on God’s will by noticing how prompt nature is to do the will of God, let’s just see if a Praying Mantis can teach us anything about the spiritual life.
Thus speaks our Praying Prophet: “So, you want to learn something, do you? I hope you’re not messing with me, just hearing what I have to say and then forgetting it, not putting what you learn into action, since that would be nefarious, evil and bad. But if you think you are eager to take in the message I have for you, come, follow me…”
He continues: “But you had better be serious about this. I mean, you did know that all creation is in eager expectation of the redemption of the sons of man, didn’t you?”
He goes on: “Do you see what I’m pointing to? Your watch. I, the Praying Prophet, am telling you that it is time to pray, to come to know more of the Living Truth, the Living Word of God Incarnate, who, though eternal, entered time when He was conceived in the womb of the Immaculate Virgin Mary by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. He said that you are to be as perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, to be holy as He is holy, to pray always. That “always” means that it’s time to pray at any time, not just at this or that time, though that is important too, but at every time, at any place and in any circumstance, always a simple child of God, looking to Him whatever is happening.”
O.K., O.K. says yours truly. Yikes! To walk in humble thanksgiving with our God. This is right and just. He entered into time that we might enter into enternity, having been so united in friendship with Him, so filled with sanctifying grace, so much taken up into the life of the Most Holy Trinity, which, in this vale of tears, we call the indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity. Don’t forget, the angels point us to our Lord Incarnate, to the Most Blessed Sacrament, to the Sacrifice of the Mass. Today’s ad orientem picture:
In fact, the Eucharistic Congress begins in the Diocese of Charlotte today and runs through the weekend. Go the supercool dedicated website HERE.
Yours truly will be participating at the hermitage. If you are anywhere near this part of the East Coast of the United States, do drop in, get in the magnificent procession and… and… go to confession!
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
We have a lot of those as well. I do know that they cannot stand to be wet because when I water the flowers they hurry to get out of the way of the sprinkle. Yesterday I was watering and one jumped to the ground so I scooted it to a dry area. It was brown. We have beautiful green ones to and have named them Mr. Green Jeans.
I like the way they listen to me when I talk to them; they turn their head toward me and look at me.
You crack me up, your posts are certainly a weird mixture of pain and delight. The Praying Mantis’s narrative on prayer is quite convincing and a delight. Have you ever seen their defense using their wings when under attack? They extend their wings, there are four in all, straight out at a slight angle over their back to four points in a diamond shape. I think there are four wings, but it could have been an optical illusion in the shadow as I thought they only had two. Anyway, I witnessed this one afternoon while praying the rosary. The mantis was on the outside screen of a window covered with a sheer and the sun streaming on him through the window, its shadow enlarged on the sheer. I noticed him when I heard a bang on the window. Two sparrows were trying to have him for lunch. At first I thought I should run out and save it, but much to my surprise up and out came the spear like wings. Between his grip on the screen and his wing defense, the sparrows, as hard as they tried, didn’t get him. It didn’t take long before I was more concerned about the birds coming through the glass than getting the mantis. It made quite an impression on me, I’ll never forget that moment. Thanks for the reminder, pray always and hang on tight.
I know a four year in Sacremento California who would love to go with you on your
bug hunts . He loves to check out praying mantises . The ones in your yard are huge !
It would be a real adventure for him to see the BIG-BIG kind .
Holy Regards for the natural world ,
Vanessa
hello Vanessa: that “yard” is BIG-BIG too. It’s Pisgah National Forest. I’m right on the border of it.