Bearing Fruit: This Lent, Cultivate the Garden of Your Heart
“The beginner must think of himself as of one setting out to make a garden in which the Lord is to take His delight, yet in soil most unfruitful and full of weeds. His Majesty uproots the weeds and will set good plants in their stead. Let us suppose that this is already done — that a soul has resolved to practice prayer and has already begun to do so. We have now, by God’s help, like good gardeners, to make these plants grow, and to water them carefully, so that they may not perish, but may produce flowers which shall send forth great fragrance to give refreshment to this Lord of ours, so that He may often come into the garden to take His pleasure and have His delight among these virtues” (St. Teresa of Ávila).
Gardens are an important setting in Scripture. Adam and Eve are created in the Garden of Eden, born out of God’s great love for us (Genesis 2). Jesus prays and suffers in the Garden of Gethsemane before he is arrested and crucified (Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, Luke 22:39-46)—again, out of love for us.
This Lent, the Catholic Women in Business team is meditating on our interior garden, where we can invite God to help us bear fruit. As St. Augustine wrote, “The turn of phrase by which the man is said to work the land, which is already land, into also being landscaped and fertile, is the same as the one by which God is said to work the man, who was already a man, into also being godfearing and wise.”
I love flowers. I think my love language is a bouquet of roses (yellow are my favorite, though there’s something special about my husband surprising me with red roses). I delight in wearing floral prints and dressing my baby in them, too.
I also enjoy floral imagery, and it abounds in Catholicism. From Marian gardens to the Little Flower’s roses, there are many ways flowers speak to us as Catholic women. But the stories of flowers and gardens aren’t all happy. It’s a cliche for a reason: Every rose comes with thorns.
Eden and Gethsemane
The Bible opens with the story of a garden: the Garden of Eden. It’s the one perfect place that has ever existed on Earth. In it, Adam and Eve loved each other and God perfectly—until they didn’t. They were banished from the Garden, expelled into the fallen world we live in today.
Another important garden in the Bible comes much later, with Jesus praying in Gethsemane before his passion and death. His prayer is recorded, so that we can see what it is to ask for God to take away our suffering and to pray that challenging and beautiful prayer: Not my will but yours, Father (Matthew 26:42, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42).
God Works the Woman
St. Augustine wrote that “the turn of phrase by which the man is said to work the land, which is already land, into also being landscaped and fertile, is the same as the one by which God is said to work the man, who was already a man, into also being godfearing and wise.”
As our writers will be exploring in their articles over the next 40 days, Lent is a time of cultivation. We fast, give, and pray in cooperation with God, to grow closer to him and to strive to be more like him. We are already made in his image, as St. Augustine pointed out—we simply need to allow him to help us become godfearing and wise.
This Lent, the Catholic Women in Business team invites you to join us as we meditate on how to invite God to nourish and nurture us, so that we can bear his fruit in the world and, someday, be with him forever in the garden of heaven.
Taryn Oesch DeLong is a Catholic wife and mother in North Carolina. After 10 years in nonprofit and editorial work, she left the workplace to be a stay-at-home mom and freelance editor and writer. She encourages women to live out their feminine genius as the managing editor of Catholic Women in Business, a FEMM fertility awareness instructor, and a contributor to publications for Catholic women. Taryn enjoys curling up with a cup of Earl Grey and a good novel, playing the piano, and taking walks in the sunshine with her family. Connect with her on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or read her blog, Everyday Roses.