Tending the Garden of the Soul: Reflections on Lent and the Labor of Love in Spring

Dear Friends,

After spending all weekend helping to lead a youth confirmation retreat on Lake Texoma, I spent my day off on Monday — the hottest February 26th on record — doing yard work outside. There were (and still remain) a long list of long-ignored outdoor chores — pulling out dead plants; cleaning out the leaves that had built up around the (suddenly very busy) AC compressors; putting down pre-emergent; trimming perennials; fixing sprinkler heads; and more. The worst of all the jobs was cutting down two large bougainvillea vines, which were very dead but still very thorny. There were plenty sharp enough for a Roman cohort to make Jesus a hat closet full of crowns.

Though the mid-summer weather was not ideal, I do love spring yard-work (apart from that bougainvillea). There is something very Lenten about it. Lots of clearing things out, cleaning things up, and making way for new growth. The point of such yard work is not to make the yard at end of winter look beautiful, but to make space for spring to sprout. The purpose is to make a place where beauty, fullness, and growth appear soon.

That is also the point of Lent. The habits and the disciplines we take up this season — whatever yours are — are to clear space for beauty, fullness and growth in your spiritual life with God. We are doing the same sort of work on our spiritual selves that you see landscape crews doing in parkways and common spaces all over town.

So keep up with your Lenten disciplines (or recommit if you need to). It may be hard to see now, but just as the warmth of the sun is quickly bring blossom and growth to the readied earth, so the warmth of the light of Christ will bring forth fruit in your spiritual life.

In Christ,
Fr. Andrew