04.25.2023 | Tuesday in Paschaltide

Happy Tuesday in Paschaltide from this old gardener in South Saint Louis.  The Garden is in full swing on this cloudy morning in late April.  My Roma and San Marzano tomatoes are in their little beds happy and healthy after their hardening off period.  The Snap Peas that were direct planted about two weeks ago have poked their little heads up.  The lettuce is looking good.  The onions and garlic and really coming along.  My one fear is that my Asparagus may not have survived the winter.  It's only year two and I'm a bit worried. 

Gardening is not just a hobby but a passion here in the Carondelet Garden.  It's a total mess of excitement and mania combined with urgency and deep desire.  We gardeners are an odd mix of botanists, evangelists, theologians, midwives and sometimes saboteurs.  We kill, we bleed, we birth, we pray.  It's all part of the process and the goal is always the same:  the perfect harvest.  It all becomes worthwhile when that first Roma tomato comes into full ripeness, and I pluck and eat it standing right there.  I may even rinse it off this year.

When I'm gardening, it is my time of meditation and prayer.  A time of paying attention and taking notice of what God has to say in God's way.  I'm learning that I don't get to determine how God will speak to me.  I get what I get, and I need to paying attention, or I will miss it.  I'm trying to be more mindful and open and to lean into the beauty that surrounds me.  I'm trying to submit to the transforming power of a creative God with the hope and faith that my transformation can, in turn, help transform this broken creation.  My prayer for this Tuesday in Paschaltide. Amen.