Seasons of spiritual growth

The seasons change. We have winter, spring, summer, fall. Each season brings with it its own delights and struggles. Snow is beautiful, but it is a bear to drive through. Spring is nice with all the new growth and warmer temps, but we have mud and mosquitoes to deal with. Summer is warm and healing, but we can also get sunburned and overheated. Fall is gorgeous with the colored leaves, but the days get shorter and we start to hibernate more in the colder weather.

So it is with the spiritual life. Each season brings with it newness of growth and various delights, but there are times of dark nights of the soul, times of spiritual attack by the enemy, and times of struggles as we grow.

Sometimes we are like fallow fields and we lay barren with seemingly nothing to offer the world. Sometimes we are like a lake soaking up the spring rains and refreshing everyone who comes near us. Sometimes we are full of life like a sprouting garden. Sometimes we are open like a flower accepting a humingbird. Sometimes we are like a quiet summer night, just resting in the arms of God. Sometimes our breath becomes a conduit for the breath of the Holy Spirit and we breathe blessings out to the world.

The only difference between the seasons on the earth with the seasons in the spiritual life, is that one is fairly regular with a monthly calendar and the other is not. We have the liturgical year and that helps, but our personal journies and cycles of growth can be rather haphazrd depending on so many variables: our heatlh, our family, our parish family, our work places, our friendships, our schedules, our commitment to prayer and our relationship with Jesus, and the attacks the evil one throws at us.

Because our spiritual lives can vary so much I think it is important that, as much as possible, we keep a spiritual routine. You know, daily Mass if possible, daily prayer, scripture reading, other spiritual reading, spiritual conversations, and I also think something that is important is to surround our living space with spiritual art, symbols, and reminders of our faith.

For me what helps, is that I have a small bulletin board at work where I tack prayers. I also have a simple rosary hanging on the wall, and a bible on my bookshelf. These things remind me of who I am and to whom I belong when I am in the middle of a hectic work day.

These are my thoughts for today. I hope they encourage you in some way and also make you think a little. Thank you for listening.