Nourishing the Soul: Tending the Spiritual Orchard

What stands out to me from this week’s readings:

The Old Testament passage says to me that what a person says and does reveals what’s important to him or her. What a person does is even more revelatory than what she says. So is how a person responds to temptations and hardships.

The psalm passage says to me that to be just is to do more than praise God or say kind words to another person. It means rooting one’s perspective and actions in God. The first reading points to the potential for distance between appearance or words and what’s in a person’s heart. The psalm points to what results if there is no distance between what’s in the heart and the good a person speaks or shows to the world.

The epistle points to Christ and the Spirit that comes from Him as the relationship that closes the distance. God transforms hearts prone to frailty and wounded by sin through Christ. Christ transforms through the Spirit through day-to-day experiences, through sacraments, and by again and again, offering forgiveness for sins. His offering and act of solidarity on the cross makes it possible for us to receive all these other gifts. To paraphrase the last sentence of this week’s epistle, His giving of Himself in suffering, to the point of death, and beyond has the potential to make everything we do part of His healing mission. What we do becomes part of this mission when what we do is grounded in the Spirit He has given us to share with Him and with others.

But, the Gospel passage reminds us, we can share that Spirit only if we invite it to work in and through us again and again. We can help others see only if we allow the Spirit to help us see. The passage reinforces the message of the selection from the Old Testament. The effects of a person’s words and actions reveal a person’s true nature.

What someone else is sharing about this week’s readings:

Sr. Quincy Howard shares with us a reflection on this week’s readings. Her words offer an eye-opening look at the ways we grow our food. I never realized how the taste of fruit has changed over time until I read her reflection. After describing farming methods, she uses them to examine how we tend our souls and the souls of others.

What I’m saying (about the readings and beyond) this week:

Well-known Scripture passages can become overly familiar. Passages Christians turn to during Lent and Easter are no exception to this tendency. So this Lent, I thought exploring different reading materials might be helpful. These could provide journaling prompts, meditations, and reflections. This approach might help me see familiar words in new ways.

I’ve looked at some options and haven’t settled on just one or even two. Besides, I’m hesitant to follow one collection of reflections too closely on this blog because I want to encourage you to look into the books yourself. I invite you to see which one, if any, deepens your perspective and your relationships with God and others. I’m thinking of pulling a bit of inspiration for my Lenten posts from this book, and a bit from that one. Here are the titles I’m considering journaling or meditating with, in case you’d like to follow along with me:

I’ve listed the books in no particular order, but so far, the last one on the list intrigues me the most because the author, Sr. Josephine Garrett, in addition to having a religious vocation, is a trained mental health professional. A sample I read indicates that she brings all facets of her vocation into the book’s meditations, reflections, and prompts. I plan to start Lent by looking into each book in the list above, but I have a feeling I’ll end up following along with just one or two.

Comments RSS

Sitting with the Sacred

Reflections on Wrestling with God