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Flower Beds in Holland by Vincent van Gogh, c. 1883 [National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.]
By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing, March 19, 2026
Stephen P. White is executive director of The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America and a fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
I have what I like to think of as a healthy obsession with bulbs. I don’t mean the kind you screw into an electric lamp. I mean flower bulbs: tulips, hyacinth, daffodils, crocuses, snowdrops, and the like. I bury them in the dirt in the autumn. And as soon as the frozen ground softens to mud, green things start to emerge.
While the rest of the world (the lingering snow by the curb included) thinks it is still winter, the bulbs are having none of it. The bulbs are unstoppable. Once the bulbs emerge – those little green nibs, sometimes tinged wine-red – there’s no going back. Winter is finished, and all the cold snaps and late-season snow showers are in vain.
As we say in our family every year when the first crocuses appear, “Aslan is on the move.” …
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Christ the King. While the specific artist of this traditional Catholic painting is not definitively identified in common digital records, it is a well-known devotional image representing The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe... Licensing Details - Public Domain Status: Most traditional Catholic religious art of this style, often originating from the late 19th or early 20th centuries, is considered public domain because any original copyright has long since expired.