Ruminations of an Irascible Hermit.: The mystical garden of your soul

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

The mystical garden of your soul

In two of the options for the Office of Readings today (one from St Macarius for Ordinary time, the other from St Columbanus for his optional Memorial), we find references to gardening. One on cultivating virtue, the other on producing good fruit according to the Holy Spirit. This has led me to reflect on an image I have thought on lately that relates to the spiritual life as gardening, and Jesus himself as the Divine Gardener.

This goes back to the Bible itself: from when God walked in the Garden of Eden with Adam & Eve (Genesis 3:8), to St Mary Magdalene mistaking Jesus after the Resurrection for a gardener (John 20:14-5). Jesus himself in the Gospels used metaphors from horticulture to discuss the importance of bearing fruit (Luke 6:43-45), the need for a harvest (Matthew 9:38), and most famously when telling us how we need to remain in him as branches remain connected to the vine in order to stay alive and bear fruit (John 15:4).

St Catherine of Siena has a famous saying that builds on this where she says “God has made you a gardener, to plant virtue and root out vice”. This is wonderful imagery that I have often meditated on in my own personal prayer! This is mirrored in the book of Genesis 2:15 where God commands Adam to look after the garden (cultivate & till, dress it & keep it). This same specific language is used later on to refer to Temple worship and the liturgical function of the priests (Num. 3:7-8; 8:25-26; 18:5-6; 1 Chron. 23:32; Ezek. 44:14).

We can see that this garden imagery is intimately related to Temple worship and priesthood, which then in the light of the New Testament takes on new power with Jesus as the Divine Gardener of our souls. This is also an image that St Teresa of Avila discusses in her autobiography and also explores when discussing stages of prayer.

So today, I invite you to take some time in the inner garden of your soul. Spend time cultivating this garden for the Bridegroom of your soul.

Plant virtue and root out vice, grow it with grace and water your garden with prayer. Make the garden of your soul as beautiful as possibly so it can bear fruit by the Holy Spirit. Then Jesus the Divine Gardener will cultivate it together with you, to prepare it for the Vinedresser (John 15:1) and Lord of the Harvest (Matthew 9:38) for a a harvest of righteousness (James 3:8) in the Heavenly Garden of Eden (Revelation 22:1-5).

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Disclaimer

Please note. I am a Catholic layman, not a qualified theologian or philosopher. What I say and write here are my own personal thoughts and ideas, although I always try to conform my writings to the Magisterium of the Church.

I- with firm faith believe and profess everything that is contained in the symbol of faith: namely,

I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith I believe as well everything contained in God's word, written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the church--whether in solemn judgment or in the ordinary and universal Magisterium--as divinely revealed and called for faith.

I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing that is proposed by that same church definitively with regard to teaching concerning faith or morals.

What is more, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate when they exercise the authentic Magisterium even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive.