There is something amazing about the gift of Spring reflects Offaly influencer

There is something about the gift of Spring that awakens a feeling of optimistic expectation. Am I crazy or do we also come alive in springtime? I remember when younger I was involved in musicals in my little home town and recently while walking in nature I remembered the lines of a song from a musical that a cousin of mine sang and it went "younger in springtime are you...' and it made me think how true that statement is. Though the day at present on which I'm writing this column could only be described as cold, we've already had a sweet taste of the warm spring days before us and it has given us a new 'spring' in our step and has made us in some ways feel younger and more alive! I love spring.

The new beginnings, trees sprouting green tips, birds caroling from branch to branch, crisp fresh air rushing in from newly open windows and the earth awakening from its dull brown slumber. Spring is God’s way of saying, ‘One more time!’ For spring is a metaphor for change. Some changes we eagerly await, and some we abhor. Some changes we plan and others arrive uninvited. To all these changes we ask the gift of God's perspective beckoning us to expectation, hope, and rebirth. May the sunlight and the rain be reminders that God is at work renewing the earth. As a God of renewal, God is ever at work in our lives, too. Open our eyes and lives to the needed changes in our lives this Spring. Awaken us to new life and perspective and may all that weighs us down crack open so we can breathe anew and bask in the beautiful spring light!

Season of Renewal

"Just as there are seasons in the world around us, so there are in our interior life," Teresa of Avila wisely observed. "We cannot expect it to be otherwise." Spring is a season of renewal and rebirth. It's a time when buds become leaves and flowers, when healing rain washes roads and streets and falls like grace on parched country fields, when the ground beneath us softens to allow shoots of new life to emerge. As outside, so inside. Spring is a time for cleaning out and making way for fresh possibilities and new commitments. It's a time to revive our senses and expand our horizons. It's a time to begin again. Spring awakens and enlivens us in a way no other season can.

We remember what new life looks like, we remember what possibilities can be just around the corner, and we remember that beauty is all around us if we only look and become aware. At this time of year, we tend to want to clean our house and rid ourselves of anything that reminds us of the long, cold winter and this year especially anything that reminds us of the Coronavirus and lockdowns. We want to open our windows to let in the clean, fresh air. We want to toss out anything that clutters our house. We usually refer to this as spring cleaning. We want to get rid of anything that reminds us of the cold, dark months of winter and the many months of lockdowns so we can allow in the beauty of spring. But just as we have spring cleaning, we can also use this time as one of spiritual spring cleaning.

When spring arrives, more sunlight brightens your home as the days grow longer, and fresh air blows in once the temperatures warm up enough to open your windows.  But all the light and fresh air reveal what you may not have noticed during the dark, cold days of winter: Your house is a mess.  It’s not fun to see the clutter and dirt that needs to be cleaned up around your house, but the more light and air that flows in, the more motivated you are to do some spring cleaning. Spring cleaning can be more than just a chore, however.  It can actually be exciting if you use the time to start cleaning up something far greater than your house: your soul.  The closer you get to Jesus – the Light of the world – and the more you invite the Holy Spirit to blow the fresh air of His love into your life, the more you become aware of how messy your soul has become. Thankfully, there’s no sin too messy for God to clean up when you follow His divine cleaning plan of confession, repentance, and reconciliation.

So while you’re spring cleaning your house, invite God to clean your soul. It is a time to clear out our spiritual house, so we become receptive to God’s love and bring joy and happiness into our lives. Our spiritual house is our body and mind in which our soul resides. We must free ourselves of the clutter of mind and matter so that God's Holy Spirit can flow in.

Thought for the week

As your thought for the week, approach spring as though it is the first time you ever experienced it, the first time you ever saw a flower, a tree growing, a bird flying. Open your heart to love, to beauty, to prayer, to reflection and meditation, to clarity, to God. Leave the old behind and be reborn during the season of spring. The gift of hope is representative of the spring season, the image of the sun peeking through the clouds. You are reborn as the sun is reborn each day.

Each spring your spirit will burst out of the darkness of winter. Make your spirit bright like the colors of Nature. Feel the world through your heart. This is a time to leave behind old patterns, old ways of doing things, and embrace the power and beauty of new life. I pray that as the signs and the magic of spring begin to show themselves all around us, that you will remember that each new day is like a cleared field ready for planting. Your thoughts, attitudes, and actions are the seeds you plant.  Let us be moved by this vast and gentle insistence that goodness shall return, that warmth and life shall succeed. Help us to understand our place in this miracle.

Let us see that as a bird now builds its nest, bravely, with bits and pieces, so we must build human faith and life. It is our simple duty; it is the highest art; it is our natural and vital role within the miracle of spring; the creation of faith and life. God, thank you for the Gift of Spring and the hope of warmer, longer, brighter days. Thank you for the coming of growth and life and birth. Thank you that things are coming awake in the world. This is what our calendar says, and we do see some signs that it is real. But we also still struggle with the residual layover of winter.

Now we ask that you bring into reality all that belongs in this season. Your word says that we will have provision, and hope, and joy, and health and loving relationships here and now in this life. We ask that what belongs in this season would become actual in our practical lives. We hope in you and in your promises. We hope for your gift of Spring. Have a great Spring everyone!