My Secret Garden....

The Rose of All Roses, Wilhelm Menzler

Today at Mass, the Priest mentioned how our souls are a little plot of land that God gives us and that it is our responsibility to tend the plot and hopefully, make a beautiful garden out of it!  What a lovely image that is and it really got me to think of my own little garden.

  For many, many years I didn't even know that I HAD a plot!  So, when I realized that I did...I had a lot of cleaning up to do!  The plot was hard, dry, and lifeless!  So ugly and un-appealing that I really didn't even like to be present there.  I made excuses like, "It's too hard, too much work, how come everyone else's plot is so much better than mine?"....I could go on and on.  Then, I must have just started slowly weeding out some of the  weeds.  I'm sure I didn't  weed them all out  at once, but must have, at some point, realized that it was kind of nice and relaxing to be in my little private plot, to be alone and aware that things had to get cleaned up.   I must have started watering my  plot with prayer and scripture and good books and began to notice that my garden wasn't hopeless after all...so then, I started planting a few flowers.   Flowers like St. Therese, St. John of the Cross, Liturgy of the Hours, St. Teresa of Avila, the Rosary,warm words from my Bobonne, my Carmelite Group (which by the way, Carmel means 'garden')....and before I knew it...I had a beautiful little sanctuary to go to whenever I wanted to be alone with the One I love!  Now, that I am aware of this little Garden, with God's grace, there will no stopping me!  I will make it a perfect, holy place to share time with Jesus.  We will walk around it together and Jesus, the MASTER Gardener, will point out things to me and share with me how I might change it to make it even better!  He'll tell me not to worry because He will always be there to help me and we will tend our little, hidden and secret place together!  Ah!  He loves us!

"The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."
  Isaiah 58:11