The Garden of Life

If you are a gardener as I am, it is during the month of May when I start to plan my garden. I ask myself questions like, “What will I plant?” “How many seeds and seedlings do I need to purchase?” These are two important questions, because I know from experience that planning and planting are the first steps to a successful garden. More importantly, the question I have to ask myself is, “Can I commit to the work that a garden requires?” As I have learned over the years, it is important to spend at least an hour a day in my garden so that the weeds do not get ahead of me. If I relate a garden to my prayer life, I know that I need to spend an hour a day in prayer in private to nurture my faith. My faith, like my garden, needs love and encouragement to grow and bear fruit. I love to talk to the plants, and encourage the new sprouts to not give up. As I do this, I am reminding myself that I too need encouragement to grow in my faith. I receive encouragement from people who help me grow in faith by their words and example. As I plant seeds into the earth this spring, believing they will grow, I am connecting this act of planting to the first seeds of faith that were planted in me by my parents. By their words and examples I learned how to live a faith-filled life. I continued to learn more about my faith through family and friends, along with my commitment to daily private prayer. Another example in regard to gardening is that as I weed my garden this summer, I weed out the areas of my life which hold me back from living my Benedictine commitment. With this in mind, I will nourish the positive aspects of my life and God’s tremendous love for me. One way that I am able to nourish my life as a Benedictine is faithfulness to the Liturgy of Hours. If you would like to learn more about our community, please contact Sister Lisa Rose at lrose@csbsju.edu.

S. Lisa Rose, Vocation Director